this week has been insane.
let me start off by thanking everybody who participated in the service out in Nova York...as people here call it... all y'all are incredible. truly inspiring...i'll be sharing this experience that my mother recounted to me this week at district meeting. this week has been more than we expected. yes, I was slightly down last week...feet were starting to drag, and lots and lots of rejection....our investigators were not progressing really well...
well....we prayed, fasted, prayed, studied, prayed, fasted, and prayed again...and you know what!?!?! the Lord provides when you do what he commands....
this friday we are proud to announce the baptism of Fernanda (13), daughter of Luis, who was baptized the third of this month, and Andreo (also 13), son of Glade, an inactive member that we got a reference to from an active member she met her at work..... they are fantastic. incredible. and a blessing. we have been working our hind-quarters off on them, and it's finally paying off.... this week the members were fantastic too, we recieved 6 references...of whom we visited, 2 have a decent amount of potential...so the numbers run like this normally..
in every 1000 doors we clap, we get 1 baptism
in every 10 references we get from members... we get 1 baptism
seeing a trend?????
well, we also encountered Elisandro a couple of weeks ago, he is a family friend of our next door neighbors (bishop, and the family that lives above him)... he is a bible scholar and extremely intelligent...absurdley intelligent.....he did a stint a couple of years ago where he spent three months fasting off and on and studying the bible all day...that's all he did....he's a musician by trade. well he moved in a couple of weeks ago with the family that lives above bispo, and we ran into him one day when we were looking for one of the young men who lives in that house...we were going to go out and teach a lesson with him...but as we walked through the door, Elisandro got up and told us to sit down so he could talk with us...find out who we are and what we believe...he was extremeley cynical.....what could these couple of dweebey white kids from the united states tell me about the bible that I don't already know....well, we taught him twice...a little about the gosple and a bit about the restoration...and he read 3 Nefi 11....and took notes, and got out of it more than most members get out of it...but it was all out of satire and to make a mockery right...well, we stopped visiting him because he wasn't sincere....well, we marked Mosiah 8 with him which talks about the spirit incurring a change of heart....and three weeks later (last week) we visited him again...this time. he went to church the next day, and was quite a bit more sincere and honest.... he has a biblical comprehention level of a genious, but he is realizing that there is more than just the biblical interpretaitons to the world...that the Book of Mormon is true and that we can realize this by reading from its pages and praying...because God never lies, and when we pray with faith, with real intent to know...we will recieve an answer.... well.... we had splits on thursday...and elder Nelson and I visited him....and he accepted baptism and to stop smoking. He is hoping to be baptized on the 22nd of december. :) wonderous miracles from the heavens. He's also been to church twice...and we have a new gospel principles teacher who is brilliant and very strong...I had an objection to what she said (I missunderstood a point that she made...elisandro had the same objection) and she took a shotgun and shot us out of the sky....doctrinally....very humbling and slightly humiliating... but she works very well with Elisandro... I'm excited!
so the title of my email is about peaches...and that has been a general theme this week....peaches, peaches, peaches
so on tuesday, we were visiting a lady that we had taught once, and as we left her house and were walking down the adjacent street, a peach truck (large flatbed farm produce truck) was parked on the corner and a lady was selling her fresh-picked peaches out of it. as we passed her, she was in deep conversation, but told the guy to hold on and she called out to us, we came over, and she handed us a bag (probably 3kg) of fresh picked peaches...we tried to pay her but she woulde have nothing of it. Sweet!!! peaches!!!! so we eat a bunch...they are hard and green, but so very succulantly sweet...very much like an apple almost.....delicious....well, the next day, we run into her again...once again she is in deep conversation, so we can't talk with her, but she hands us another bag full of peaches....
so I have been eating peaches for every meal....breakfast and dinner and snacks...sooo good, we only have 1 left now i think...skin them and eat them with milk and sugar (or instead, I eat them with amaixa yogurt. (i think that translates to a mini-plumb?)) very very delicious
pictures are on the way, they are going to tell the story of the last 2 weeks :) ta?
te amo
Elder Tyler Eliason
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