Elder Trevor Knight

Mi querida familia,

Wow what a crazy week! Just let me tell you a few stories this week..

1. First, you'd have to understand how things feel here in Cuichapa. Its pretty tough at times. I think it was Dad who said he looked it up, and found pretty much nothing about Cuichapa. Well its because its super small, but funny thing is that there are about literally 30+ different churches here in this tiny little town. Lots of controversy at times, lots of people too tired of listening to everyone else to even give us the time of day sometimes. And about all the people who are willing to listen to us, we've already met, taught, invited, verified, and dropped. We're literally saying hi to everyone all day, by their names. And almost everyone knows us, or me as the 'gringo misionero.' We're literally talking all the time, and getting to know everyone. So long story short, there are days where we spend all day looking for new investigators, and we don't find much. We even went to a pueblito (small village) called San Martin the other day(we totally got played by a taxi driver Adrian, who charged us 100 pesos for the ride) and talked with everyone there, and nobody wanted to accept our message, or even accept to pray to know if what we taught was true. Pretty hard in the head. hmmm I know we can find people still though, it just takes faith.

2. So Wednesday we were on divisions, Elder Kimble came and worked with me here in Cuichapa. As I was looking for a less-active members home that we had never knew existed, we approached a home where a woman came out telling us to enter and brought out chairs for us to sit down. Her name is Irene, and we taught her and her neighbor who was there about the Restoration. Super awesome lesson, a bit long, but powerful. We left them each Books of Mormon, and put a return-appointment to verify their prayers to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Longer story shorter, Irene has been reading, praying, loves it, and asks us the greatest questions. Out of all the investigators we invited to church and had received firm confimation that they were going to come, Irene was the only one who came. We passed by her home in the morning and she was already dressed and ready to go. Her husband was there too, but said he had to go to work at 9:30, but he wanted to come next week because his wife looked very excited to go. Irene came, and what do you know, she and Lourdes are friends! How cool, Lourdes is a recent-convert, and I know we were sent in Irene's home for a reason. Irene needs the gospel, and Lourdes really needs a good friend with her in the church. Miracles happen. End of story (for now).

3. Yesterday, after church we stopped by the house to drop off our class' books, (and Elder Rodríguez feels a bit sick and was in the bathroom). Meanwhile, I continued where I left off in the Book of Mormon in the morning, and I felt the impression to look in our ward directory for some reason. I didn't know what I was looking for, but started looking at all the birthdays, and I found a name I didn't recognize, and it was her birthday! Yazareth, and she lived pretty close to our house too! I went in the fridge and found a Hersheys chocholate bar that you sent me, and we took it to her (in the blazing heat, who knows how it didn't melt). Upon arriving, an older woman came out, and went back into the house, we imagined to get Yazareth. But turns out Yazareth's sister, Mari, is a member too. The woman told us that Mari wasn't home, and we replied that we came to visit Yazareth. She asked, "Yazareth? You came to visit Yazareth?" And we were like "Yyyyeah, is she home?" And then she told us she would ask her if she wanted to come down. Weirded us out, but anyways.... Yazareth came out, and we started talking to her. It was her 41st birthday, and told us that she hadn't gone to church in 10 years! And she shared a thought with us, that I found so dang true. I don't remember exactly what she said, but I will share with you my thoughts after the lesson with her.

Everybody wants to feel like the one, who the Great Shepherd goes looking for. When you miss a Sunday in church, or stop going to the activities, you'd like to know that somebody is missing you and looking for you. You think or wait for somebody to call you, "Hey, where were you today? We missed you. Are you okay? Is there something we can do to help you? How's the family? ..etc." But sometimes, even as members, we lose ourselves in the distractions of the world, and we don't pay as much attention to others as we should. We don't go by the house of a sister who didn't come to church today because we're hungry and want to get home to eat. There are plenty of excuses, even more than there are for those who don't go to church (I slept in, I have homework, I feel sick{sometimes acceptable}, I don't have gas, etc.). But we shouldn't let ANYTHING get in the way of us caring for our brothers and sisters. If your son/daughter/sibling didn't come home one day, you would go looking for them or call them or something, wouldn't you? I don't see why our minds don't think this way about the church. When we go to church, we are returning home to renew our covenants, and learn from Spirit-inspired leaders, and see our brothers and sisters. I feel that we all can put a bit more effort into taking care of those we love (everyone), so that we can REALLY be tools in the Lord's hands to bring His children in return to His loving arms...

Do everything you can. You know I believe in you, and am always praying for you all. I am so grateful for the inspiration and revelation that our Father offers us to guide us back to Him, even in this crazy world. It's never too late to invite the Spirit in our lives, there is no limit to returning to His presence. Take care of yourselves, and everyone else too! =)

Love,

Elder Knight