July 28

Hey GRANDPA!

Wow I still can´t believe that you are a grandpa.

Well anyways this week has been a great week for a lot of hard work. This week they finished off the celebration for the virgin Mary and started an even bigger one for Santa Ana, the patron saintess of Baranoa. It has been very interesting for me to see the difference in religious practice. Lots of parties. When the religious part ended they closed off the streets and put out tents and boxes of beer to pass the weekend, so the work was a little slow again.

If you´ll all remember my last baptism, Jeimi Bolivar. Se has been having a lot of difficulty in going to church. She hasn´t been for like 2 months, and it has been really hard to see it happen. We have worked super closely with her, but haven´t yet had success. We have visited her with other young women, including the young women did a family night just for her. We have tried working with her family again to get her excited, but it hasn´t worked. So that has been very hard for me to see, but we still have hope. The branch president is going to interview her this week to see if there is something that ipedes her from feeling comfortable in church. WE will see.

One time my friend Ryan Allen wrote me from his mission and said that when you are in a hard area and there is a ton of opposition, you feel the best because it´s like being on the winning sidfe in a huge battle when things aren´t going well. That´s how I feel now. There are a lot of difficulties and problems and we aren´t having success like anyone wants, but I have never felt so happy to work and so glad to be where I am. There are transfers in a couple weeks and I will feel really sad if I leave here because there is still so much I want to do here. I have really come to love this branch, both the members and the challenges that they present (like with their callings).

We have a family with 2 young men named the Ospino family. Last week the parents got separated for some problems, but now they´re back toether. WE hope they get married and they go to church. The mom and the two young men have gone and the mom is the one who announced that she wants to get baptized, but she just needs to get married first (remember Yormitt? Same boat, but this boat won´t sink like Yormitt).

Well I love you all and I love the Lord. Yesterday I was able to pass the Sacrament and felt so happy that all the members there in the church were taking the sacrament, even when there are many who don´t go to church, and that you all are also going to church and taking the sacrament. I know that when we do that, we are purified by the Spirit and we become a little more like Christ.

Love,

Elder Wilson