Ward Spanish Night

Spanish night was super awesome! Since there are so many different cultures in the ward we have a Spanish Party every year to celebrate them all, apparently last year was bigger but they still had a ton of food and it was really fun. They had dances and a band and Elder Gunn, from our MLS couple sang and it was the best thing I've ever heard. Like I swear it was Elvis back from the dead. We had our own booth to represent heaven, I think we had the best food.

Things are rough with our investigator lately, I think she feels really unready for baptism still and is experiencing the spirit of opposition like crazy. We invited her to an English class by some members of the ward and Spanish night and she didn't show up to either of them, or church this Sunday. We aren’t giving up yet though, we are visited her tonight and shared a verse and tried to help her with her doubts and fears. I'm sorry but I gave her the hot chocolate you sent to replace her coffee and she thought it was so funny, also those gloves since I've already got some and she works in Park City. She's from Venezuela so she definitely needs them more than me. But we're visiting tonight too so let's hope things get better.

There seems to be a lot of talk about temples lately, one of our recent converts has been worried about doing baptisms and so we've been trying to help and Wednesday we are going to Oquirrh Mountain with her to do baptisms! We had our bishop come for one of the lessons and he seemed to really settle her fears. She's still anxious but much more willing to go.

I’ve learned that if you join the church just because you like some of the principles of it or because you like the people you are not converted. It's the parable by Christ about the different seeds, some fall off to the side and never grow, others fall into the rocks and grow but don't have a firm root so they blow away when there's even a little opposition. But the ones that are firmly rooted grow up strong and are safe when the winds start to blow. When I don't agree the church's stance on something or think a certain part of our beliefs are weird, I always have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith to fall back on. It's because I'm converted to the pure and perfect gospel that I follow the church. With that also though I've realized how important having at least a study journal is. Because it is so incredibly easy to forget your testimony and feelings from spiritual experiences. Elder Rasband's talk at general conference was about that and it's so true.

This is something I've tried to implement in missionary work, the lessons are super important but I'd rather focus on making them feel the spirit and being able to recognize those feelings.

I finally got to meet this returned missionary named Thomas Hunter Mason yesterday. He's a legend from our mission, I've heard him be mentioned almost everyday since I've been here. My companion tells me all these crazy stories of all these miracles he worked and how great of a missionary he was. He always says he's going to be an apostle or something. He was an awesome guy and everything and I was glad to meet him.

Te quiero mucho,

Elder Bessey