A Great Baptismal Service

Fam,

Hey hey!  Well here we keep moving along in Chapala, Jalisco. We had a really great week. Elder Garcia and I got back to the area on Tuesday really excited to visit the Sister Liliane. She had already gone to church about 5 times and we had a really good lesson for her to help her so that she would be ready for her baptism the upcoming Saturday. The coolest part was that we arrived to her and we started chatting a bit about how she was and what she learned in church the Sunday before. It was a fast Sunday and she said that she had really felt the spirit and that while she was listening she felt she had to get baptized. My companion and I were very surprised and even more happy. That made our job a whole lot easier! Well we got everything ready and she had a really great baptismal service on Saturday evening then on Sunday she was confirmed a member of church. She asked me to baptize her. I didn't realize how great it felt to be in those waters helping someone make that covenant with God. It really makes all the effort worth it when you can see the tender mercies of the Lord like that.

Elder Garcia and I also have some plans to start working with nephews and sister of Liliane. They are really great and seem to enjoy church a lot! We are really excited for them and we hope that in these next few weeks we can work diligently enough to help them make this covenant also.

This week we have a lot of family home evenings planned out. We are also going to go with a family member of some members. He went to church on Sunday and really seemed to enjoy it. He will be headed to another part of Mexico on Wednesday though but we hope we will quickly be back to keep teaching him. He is a really great guy!

I am really enjoying myself right now and I hope that the Lord is happy with my efforts. Elder Garcia is really helping me out a lot to keep focused on what I want to achieve here in the mission. We both feel that together we will have a really great change and we hope to help the zone rise up a bit more also.

Hope you have a great week! Know that I love you all and hope Ashley continues to enjoy school. McKenzie good luck. Mom and Dad keep working hard! Love ya tons!

Love,

Elder O'Brien

On the road again

Dear Family,

It was really great to hear from you all. It makes me really happy that all are doing so well. The Lord continues to bless the family much.

It sounds like this week was no lack of excitement either. It truly does sound like Ashley is going to be liking this year of school a lot! Does she have a lot of hard classes for this year? McKenzie sounds like she is really excited to get classes started up again also! Does she have all her classes set up also? That is so great that everyone is helping you out so much after the surgery mom. How long did they say you will have to take it easy for?

Well this week was no lack of excitement for us here in Chapala either. On Tuesday I got to travel two hours to go to the district meeting in Tizapan. Then I headed another hour to the area of Sahuayo. It was a good experience to now know all the areas that are in our zone. In Tizapan I was with Elder Amaro. He is a really great Elder from Tamulipas which is right up by Texas.

Then on Friday we were off and traveling again. Nearly two hours to the area of Ocotlan. We did a baptismal interview there and then we headed off in divisiones again. I came back to Chapala with the Elder Shuster. I have known him nearly since I arrived here in Mexico also. He is a great guy! He is from California and he is just about to finish his mission also!

One great thing that we were able to do was go with Sister Liliani. She is the reference that we received not too long ago. She is progressing a ton! She now has gone to church 4 weeks in a row! She continues to surprise us with her desires to become closer to God! She will not be able to be baptized this week but we hope to have everything ready for the following week!

We also have an investigator who worked until midnight on Saturday but she was there on Sunday ready to go to church. The even greater thing was that she brought a friend. Today we are going to visit them again to continue explaining more.

I really liked the picture of McKenzie's birthday. She really seemed to enjoy that banana cream pie! I hope you (mom and dad) had a good anniversary also! A very eventful weekend!

May you all have a really great week! Keep having lots of fun and get well soon mom!

Love ya!

Elder O'Brien :)