The Force is Strong With This One

November 17, 2008

Hello everyone! Things are going great here in Tucson. Just as a reminder: Transfers are going to be a week from Tuesday. No one knows what's going to happen and that's just the point but as things get down to the wire, if you want to send a letter, it might be best to do so through the mission office. (I don't know the address off hand but I think my parents do).

We just got back from the driving range. Elder Espericueta, one of the Elders in our branch, is going home next Tuesday so we decided to show him a good time on his last P-Day. He had never been golfing before but I think he enjoyed it. My swing was a little rusty (Not that I was ever any good) but it felt good to hit around a little.

Well it's been quite a week here in Tucson. The work is picking up. Slowly but surely. When I am tempted to get discouraged I think of my good brethren in Europe who are working their butts of for a fraction of the success that we see.

We have four progressing investigators right now, with a few waiting in the wings. We had a really awesome experience with a family, the Aguirre family the other night.

We met the Aguirres a few weeks ago when we were looking through the branch list and realized that they live in our area and we have no idea who they are. It turns out that the father and two of the daughters had been baptized a few years ago, but the father has since left the family (for reasons unknown to us). Anyways that left three children and the (extremely bitter) wife unbaptized. We've been working with the girls (Two of them baptized, one of them not) for a few weeks now and we were on the very verge of dropping them. Then enter Jesus.

Ok that sounds weird in English but Jesus is their 24 year old brother. Basically, Jesus has been living in Florida for the past year and a half but just came home because he couldn't really make it on his own. So one day he shows up and we think, hey, what's the worse that could happen? So not withstanding the fact that he's pretty gangster and wearing a giant Virgin Maria jacket (Not as rare a combo as you'd think) we decide to teach him.

Well for a couple of lessons we can tell that he's really interested but of course he's got to keep up the Machismo image so he pretends like he's not interested. Then he walks to church but of course "Only because I wanted to make sure my sisters made it safe and sound."

That was a week ago. Yesterday they were going to come and 10 minutes before church starts Jesus calls us and says he's not going to be able to. Why? He hurt his leg.

Well we went over and the "hurt leg" turns out to be a torn knee with a brace on it that looks like it was taken out of Star Wars. So that was the first bit of good news, and then the family, who never invites us inside (We always teach the girls out on the door step), invited us inside and before we know it, the Mom brings us a couple of plates with carne asada, rice, and beans. (it was really really good). Then Jesus gets this kinda uncomfortable look on his face and finally manages "I'm not gonna lie guys, we all met together, and we're on a quest to become Mormons now." I wanted to laugh, cry, jump up and down, and yell all at the same time. (All I really ended up doing was smiling and saying "That's awesome").

Well anyways, that's the Aguirre family.

By the way, something I think I've just never talked about: Hermano Noriega. Hermano Noriega is our branch mission leader and he's AWESOME! He's blind, and luckily he doesn't mind joking around about it (Three days ago I asked him in a lesson if he would share his testimony about how READING the scriptures has blessed his life.) He's also a spiritual giant and has a REALLY REALLY powerful testimony. Sorry, just one of those random things that I think I haven't mentioned before, that I think the parents like hearing about.

Well boys and girls that's about it for this week. I'm loving it hear in the desert and I hope that everything is going well back home. Write letters, I like that. Thank you for all of the love and support. The gospel is TRUE! It's THE ANSWER.

Love,

Elder Ben Wilson