El Bautismo de Penelope

Hope you all had a good first week of November! Starting now, so it
will be in the next email, I will pick something I am grateful for
each day and talk about how I expressed gratitude for that thing.

This week was pretty awesome!

Monday: We did our shopping and sports and got haircuts!  Later that
evening, we taught a family that is staying with their relatives,
members of our branch. So we went and had a great family home evening
talking about the Restoration. It was really awesome to see all the
important parts were understood by the kids.

Tuesday: We helped a little at the food bank then had to go up to a
dentist appointment for Elder Wilstead. I sat in the lobby and learned
a lot about how to better brush my teeth and what not. We got lunch at
Chipotle then headed back to get ready and do studies. We were able to
have a little doorstep lesson with Carlos, a new investigator. He is
really cool and we introduced the Book of Mormon. He wanted to know
more about faith so we invited him to read Alma 32. Later, we had a
lesson with Penelope and her Dad Victor. So Victor now wants to be
baptized!!! So we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is
always my favorite part to talk about faith in Jesus Christ and His
Atonement. We have to have a sure direction for our faith. We can just
have general faith but when we have faith in Jesus Christ and His
Atonement, it drives us to do more and become more. After, we met up
with a member and taught a lesson using glow-sticks to talk about
testimonies. I have a ton of glow-sticks because I forgot to hand them
to kids at the branch Halloween party... BUT I am putting them to an
even better use teaching about testimonies!

Wednesday: No meeting today but we met up with other missionaries to
practice some songs. One for a baptism and the other for a zone
conference. After, we went and had a nice lesson with Ivan and his
mom. We talked about the 10 commandments and learned them with the
hand motions. After, we had dinner and volleyball. We  then tried
visiting some people but with no luck.

Thursday: Food bank! we got quite the haul! They love giving us food
for helping out. After, we had another lesson with Ivan then some
studies. We had a great dinner with the Ortiz, Penelope's family.
After a little lesson, we went to the church for her baptismal
interview. She passed then we had a little missionary coordination
meeting.

Friday: Zone Conference! A long meeting that was fun and effective! I
sang a special musical number with other missionaries and it went
really well! We learned a lot about how to become better missionaries
though studies and different aspects of teaching such as asking
questions and listening. After, we had studies then a lesson with
Tony. He was given to us by the Hermanas. He is really nice and
interested. we talked about his interest and how he wants to follow
God's plan and better his life!

Saturday: Today was pretty awesome. We had a great service with Joe in
the morning. Later we did studies then went to the church for a
baptism of a lady. She we supported the other Elders and Angelica,
also hoping that investigators would come. Then we had lunch,
practiced a special musical number, and set up for another baptism.
Penelope was getting baptized! Everything went smoothly! We even had
our investigators show up! It was such an amazing experience! Then,
along with some sister missionaries, I sang a special musical number.
It was such an amazing evening. Then we got dinner with some other
missionaries.