Sopresa, Uvas, y El Espiritu Santo

Hello Family!

Good to hear from all of you today! I am happy to hear that all is well that the summer has been blast and you are enjoying the time you have together as a family. I am sad to not be there with all of you, but I love being out here. I think I have hit the point in my mission where I absolutely love what I am doing, even when it is hard and I don't have the energy. The Lord has blessed me so much and is helping me out with everything in His work. 

Now to explain what my tittle of this email is about, I’ll explain our week!

Monday after p-day festivities we headed to contact some potentials we found the week before and we started talking to a guy named Hector and we taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel and he shared with us some amazing stories of faith and miracles and the spirit was so strong in that lesson. We set him with a baptismal date and he accepted!! We were very excited about that! We then tried a referral named Cristina that we got last week and we ended up teaching her the Restoration as well...this lesson did go as well because there were many, many distractions. Satan is a huge fan of distractions unfortunately, but we kept teaching and kept trying to keep the spirit there. Miracle for the day: We found two new investigators!!

Tuesday we had a lesson with our Manuel Felix friend and read in the BOM more and cleared some of his doubts about the gospel. We all feel that he is really close to being baptized, but we first must set him with a date, which in the past has been very difficult. We then did some knocking and found this REALLY cool house with a mailbox that was an exact replica of the big house. Of course I took a picture of it and we knocked on it. We found hopefully a family to teach!! Later that night we had a lesson with a former investigator who is now taking the lessons again and his friend we are now teaching. Long story short, the lesson didn’t go for very long, and they ended up talking about how they wanted us to come over and eat dinner, dance, and drink with them…yeah we shot that down REAL fast!! haha. And we taught them that we don't do that. For some reason, older Hispanic men like to hit on young white missionaries…this is a slight problema! We then surprised attacked a couple we are teaching and had an intense lesson with them about baptism and how we have the authority from God to baptized people…not sure how much they got out of that lesson. I have found it hard to explain this concept to people in Spanish. One day I will learn!! Miracle for the day: we saw this tree while tracting that had toys in it!! 

Wednesday we had a good lesson with Hermana Duran. We read in the BOM and again talked about the importance of coming to church. We then did a little service at the Food Bank and then afterwards my head was bothering mereally bad so I took a little nap before we headed to a lesson with a less active named Maria De La Luz. With her we talked about the atonement and how Christ can heal us from anything through his atonement. After that we had an awesome lesson with another one of our investigators Ramon and we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we invited him to be baptized as well and he said yes!! It was a good day. And the miracle for the day: Maria De La Luz said that she was going to be bringing Nadia and Natalie to church again!! 

Thursday we had another lesson with Manuel and we talked about pg. 59 in the BOM (aka about the Fall of Adam and Eve)…that lesson was kind of crazy haha. Manuel had some interesting thoughts about why the fall happened and about the original sin, which we cleared that up!! That man…haha. You NEVER know what he will throw at you! We then planned for the rest of the day until my chiropractor appt., which man felt good for my aching body, but unfortunately did not take my head aches away...we are not sure what to do anymore...hopefully they will go away…I don't want to live with them any longer. But if this is something I must go through, I must go through it with hope. Miracle for the day: result of chiropractor- I can breath again!!

Friday we had zone training meeting this morning and that was really good! We talked about how we must have quality investigators who are progressing and have real interest in learning about the church also about asking inspired questions, and listening with love - two very important things while teaching. We later had dinner with Hermana Duran and she made us pupusas, which were amazing! We then did some knocking and found a new investigator and that lesson was really good! One of my favorite things is teaching people about the restoration the first time we meet them or contact them. Later that night we had a lesson with a sort of less active in the ward and we watched the Joseph Smith Restoration DVD, and the spirit was so strong in that lesson I loved it! Watching that strengthens my testimony of the restoration each time. Miracle for the day: EVERYONE and their dog love to give us grapes! We got this HUGE bag of grapes, which are delicious!

Saturday we had lesson with Manuel and we went in with a plan…a plan to set him with a baptismal date! So the lesson started out kind of slow, but we talked about goals and what a goal is and he had the perfect answer - so you aren't just going in circles or progressing, and we were like "EXACTLY!" that is why we want you to have a baptismal date. We invited him to be baptized on Aug 30th and HE ACCEPTED! We seriously wanted to cry and jump up and down and give him a hug and scream and everything else!! We were so happy to hear that he accepted a date and said he would prepare himself for that day! The rest of that say we contacted and carded some houses and my head was bothering me really bad. But yeah! Fantastic day cause Manuel is going to get baptized! Miracle for the day: MANUEL IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday we had church and Manuel and Hermana Duran came again so that was awesome!! We then had a really long meeting after church with the Bishop talking with him about how the work can go better and all. We ate dinner and after dinner I was feeling really sick and my head was about to burst so I took a nap and ended up falling asleep for a while…We then went out and carded a couple houses. 

This past week was amazing, but hard. But the Lord helps us out when we need it and the spirit is what really converts those we teach. 

So explanation for title-- sporesa = surprise, uvas = grapes, and Espiritu Santo = the sprit. 

These three things describe what the week was like!

I can’t believe we are going on week 6!! Only one more week and then we will have transfer calls and be possibly moving!! I’ll let you all know what happens :)

I love you all and I am thankful for your prayers and support!

prayer list- Manuel, Hna. Duran, Jose, Connie, Ramon, Rueban, and Hna. Franco

Love, Herman Aase

2 Nephi 25:26