Mason's letter -- July 5, 2010

Hey familia,

I hope Bear Lake was fun for everyone. I surely missed not being able to go, but I bet everyone had just as much fun without me haha.

But this week has been another week of trials I guess you could say. Nothing went as planned this week and I felt like everyday I was just running around improvising. Basically every single appointment of every single day fell through. We dropped a lot of investigators as well because they really are making us lose a lot of time and don't want to change at all. There is one lady who we dropped that wanted to get baptized and everything with her kid so we would make alot of appointments with her, but she would never be there and would aways ¨leave¨ the house. But we found out she would just hide from us. A few times we caught her peeking her head around a corner or something. What 40 year old woman hides herself like a 3 year old? Some people are really weird here haha. But yeah she would always tell us to come back but we were just wasting way too much time trying to teach her when she really doesn't want to change at all. I feel like almost all of the people that we have just haven't quite grasped on to the fact that they need to do something for themselves and put forth a little effort.

The baptism also fell through. The night before the kid's dad (a member) got really super drunk and grabbed a machete and tried to slice up his wife's new boyfriend (yeah we found out as well she is in adultery with a new guy... and she is also a member). So the dad went to jail, and the mom is just crazy and I always get creepy evil vibes when we talk to her. So obviously we couldn't do the baptism. But the kid really wants to get baptized and all the kids want to choose the right. The 14-year old girl goes to seminary every morning now and the 23-year old brother is really interested in the church. The parents are just a huge stumbling block. So who knows what will happen?

Also one of our investigators and her member friend got really offended by the comments of a member lady that is soon to leave on a mission. She said some really rude things to them and the lady has some depression problems. So the member lady with depression ran away to La Ceiba and is never coming back while the investigator is really mad at the rude member and doesn't want to go to church or anything.

But on the bright side we are working with a cool family. A dad and his 2 kids. The dad had to work this Sunday but he sent his 2 kids with us to church because he wanted them to go at least and he wants them to be missionaries one day. They are all really cool. One day we watched a movie at their house and he invited all the little kids in the neighborhood over to watch. So we watched that with like 20 little 8 year old kids, and he bought everyone chips and drinks. He's way cool and has a ton of tattoos and stuff. I've always wanted to baptize someone that has tattoos. but they are our bright spot.

The new president was going to go to church yesterday, So we were excited to meet him. but he didn't show up, So that was a little disappointing. I heard he is really cool though so I'm excited. We will have our multi-zone this Wednesday so we will meet him there.

But the work here is a little slow. I was feeling an impression yesterday that we need to change our whole mode of working here. So I decided that these next weeks we are going to go work in the colonies in the mountains about 30 min away. Our area also covers a couple of large colonies in the mountains and we have heard that there are a lot of less active members up there. So we talked to an active member that used to live there and we are going to go up with her and look for these people and activate them. I'm sure there are non members that live with these less actives as well, so I'm hoping for a lot of success up there. I feel really positive about that.

But don't worry about me. Sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm not. My faith is still strong that there are people here that want to change and need the gospel. I just need to change my way of working until I find them with the help of the Lord and His guidance. I know we will be led by the Spirit to the people that need us. One thing that was cool this week is that my comp followed an impression to talk to someone and we did and that person seems really positive and stuff. It's the first time he has ever done that. I've tried to teach him to follow his impressions and listen to the Spirit.

I'll talk to you all next week. I love you all.

Elder Mason Cardon