Investigators Progress

Can't believe May is come and gone! Got one day left and it's already June! This will be President and Sister Rahlf's last month. They put their departure on the mission calendar they just sent to us. They leave the last day of the month. Pretty crazy how fast time goes by. I bet they are thinking the same thing but I'm sure at the same time they are ready to get back to spending time with their family. I will be giving the scriptural thought this Wednesday in MLC which will be the last one with President and Sister Rahlf. Hopefully that means we have a celebration. :) We also have our last quarterly interview with them tomorrow before district meeting starts. 

Before I get too far into this weeks letter, I want to wish Mom a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I liked the picture of Mom's birthday with Alexa bumping the present on Mom's head. Looks like it was a good birthday.

So this week was a pretty good week. We had some investigators really progress this week. Not to the point of coming to church but we are seeing their interest increase. Our most progressing investigator is Nanay Luce Estella. We met her a couple weeks ago along with Sister Marissa who was also our new investigator. We found out this week that Marissa is actually a member. She didn't want to tell us she was baptized back in 2007. But I think it was good for her to hear the lessons again just like she was an investigator. Anyway, back to Nanay Luce. We taught her three times this week and each lesson was pretty good. She read the entire pamphlet that we gave her and is started on the introduction of the Book of Mormon. We still don't know for sure if she's received a confirmation about Joseph Smith and the restoration. The last lesson we had with her was the Book of Mormon so we'll follow up with her next time how it has helped her gain a testimony. We really enjoy teaching her even though sometimes it seems like she's not even listening then she'll ask a great question about what we've been saying. She's really pondering about the message and we're praying she follows her feelings instead of listening to the people around her.  She lives in a compound of houses that are all Espiritista including herself so we think that will be the only thing that holds her back. 

We got another new investigator this week that is showing potential. His name is Mark Ramos. He's 26, married and has a little boy. We taught him twice this week. His wife hasn't listened to us yet. We only met her the second time we taught. She didn't want to come sit by Mark but she was sitting within listening distance. Half way through she left and went outside which was too bad. Then she came back with a bottle of Coke and some snacks for us. So that was great! Hopefully she'll sit down and listen next time along with her husband Mark. 

Marinel Lapao, our progressing investigator last week, has gone down hill. She's kinda being immature when we go visit her. I don't even want to go back unless we have Fatima with us. Fatima is good friends with Marinel so she can help Marinel focus and realize how important this really is. 

Saturday we had an Elder's Quorum activity. Supposed to be sports activities in the morning then we cook lunch at the church and eat there then split up and go visit less actives for a couple hours. Basically ended up being a little get together with the Ancheta family, Brother Bautista and Julius. Julius isn't even from here. He's from Manila but is visiting his wife's family here in Burgos and he still came to help the Elder's Quorum. We played some basketball, ate lunch then everybody went home. Didn't even end up going out to work since there was nobody there. The food was already bought so we had to cook it and those that were there got to eat it. So there was a ton of food and not a lot of people. So Elder Dialino and I just went home, studied for a little then went out to work on our own. We'll have to try again next month to get a good Elder's Quorum activity put together. 

So it rains basically everyday now. If not everyday then at least 6 out of the 7 days of the week. Normally starts in the evening and rains for a couple hours. Normally hits us as we're walking to dinner and walking home. And even with umbrella's we still get soaked every time. Gotta love it! 

Sunday this week was kinda a mess. So the branch president wasn't there. He didn't say he wasn't gonna be there until Saturday night. He is supposed to teach the combined class since it is the 5th Sunday and there was a lesson given to him by the Area Presidency. The fact of him being gone wouldn't and shouldn't be a problem but he didn't assign other people to fill in for him. President Ancheta ended up being the teacher last minute and we discussed the area goals. Also President doesn't really involve his counselors in almost anything so they too didn't know what to do. I was standing outside the room they were in as they planned sacrament meeting. I heard someone say, "Who are the speakers?? Was anyone assigned??" Then without even giving time to think if someone was assigned, someone else is like,"Straight to the missionaries!" So Elder Dialino and I were the speakers in sacrament meeting. I decided to use the time to give a little chastisement/correction. I talked about missionary work but I also used the verse in Alma when Moroni is chastising Pahoran for not sending help. He talks about needed to first clean the inner vessel. I related it to the branch. We need to make it a place so that when an investigator comes, they will see that it is a place they wanted to attend church. Honestly, not having an investigator at church yesterday was more of a blessing. We were supposed to start at 8:30 right? Well it's like 9:15 and there are 10 people there. If an investigator came yesterday then never came again, I don't know how much I can blame them. I talked straight forward about being on time and being ready to participate in classes. Hopefully what I talked about will have an effect on the members. President Ancheta told me it was good what I said. Guess we'll have to see next week. 

Didn't really give a detailed day to day letter this week but those are the updates on our investigators that are making progress and also a little update on the branch. Hope you all have a great week! Talk to you again next week! 

Love Elder Haacke

 

 Finally planting season again so the fields are once again becoming green.

 

 It's hard to tell in the picture but this was a pretty cool cloud. Had a rainbow coming off the edge of it. It's hard to see the other colors in the picture but the colors were pretty distinct in real life.