We had a great week! That is so cool that grandpa and grandma are gonna head off to the MTC! They should enjoy it, and Texas. It is already cooking down here so I imagine they will be launched right from the frying pan and into the fire. They are trying to spark the family history here too because they have a trip to the temple at the beginning of March (they have to take trips a few times a year to go to the temple, Ha, what a blessing it was to be able to go before school like every week in Utah).
Whew! Finally a week of success!
We had a super slow start to the week with hardly any lessons but we put in the pilas (put in the batteries) and got goin' the second half and we got a lot done. Our investigators are progressing very well and I feel like we will have a few baptisms at the end of this exchange.
This week I had the opportunity to baptize Octavio, an 8 year old boy. He is really great and is happy to have made this covenant with his Heavenly Father. We are teaching his dad who has his baptismal date on the 15th of March. He is great too and wants to be sealed to his wife.
The most important moment of the week was last Monday. Elder Chamberlain and I were visiting a few people in the las memorias section of town and we decided to visit someone that we bumped into a while back. Ricardo is an older man who has had a lot of trials in his life but he lives with his wife and one of his many sons. He has only one leg. I'm not sure when he lost it but I think it was in the last year. He finally had time for us this day and let us in (he had been busy on other ocasions). He was really happy to talk to us. We had one of the best lessons that I had ever had as a missionary and he committed to read, pray, and be baptized when he knows that it's true. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong. At one point in the lesson he explained to us that he always lets people in from other religions from Jehova's witnesses to Adventists but he said he has never joined any of them because he feels something special with our church. His daughter got baptized a few years ago and Ricardo has loved what he has learned about the church. He explained that at the end of last year is when he really began to search for God in his life.
But this story has a backstory to it. When I had very little time in the mission field in September, one day Elder Richards and I were walking in the streets of Las Memorias. I was a bit tired and I can't remember why but there was a little bit of discontentment inside and all of the sudden we passed this man in a wheel chair with only one leg. I had the impression to talk with him and shrugged it off a bit. Later, we passed him again, and I had the same thought. As I battled inside as to whether or not I should tell my companion we walked further and further from the man until finally we were well out of reach when I finally blurted out why I was angry, because I had not followed the prompting when the Lord told me. Elder Richards told me to tell him when I get a prompting but we kept going forward.
This man might have been baptized 5 months ago if I would've followed the prompting that the Lord gave me the first time. That night I prayed that we would have the chance to contact him again. Luckily, at a much later date, we did, a few months ago. I am so grateful that the Lord answered my prayer and gave me a second chance. I am a bit ashamed that it took a few times for me to do it. I stand by President Monson when he says, "And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, {Elder Clement} will run that errand for Him." As my good friend Elder Cook said in his last email, we gain his trust when we show him that we are willing to obey. And when we are willing to obey, he will give us more. I have a testimony of this.
Elder Clement
P.S. For those of you that have seen the picture with the Savior looking over Jerusalem entitled "O Jerusalem", this picture is entitled "O Los Mochis"
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