It's raining! And I like it.

Hello Family and everyone else!

Today it is raining, and it is exactly what we need in Chimalhuacan! A lot of the streets here are unpaved, so the rain does a good job of keeping all the dirt on the floor and out of my eyes. Plus I love the smell.

Plenty has happened this week, so I'll try to stick to the highlights. So, as I said last week, Sofia told us that she has the desire to be baptized, so Elder Escobar and I went to her house to talk to her parents, because we need their permission in order to baptize her. So we explaied (again) about the importance of baptism, about receiving the Holy Ghost, and eveything else. Her Dad told us that he will NOT give her permission until she completely changes in her attitudes and, basically, he wants her to be perfect in everything that she says and does. I explained that the receiving the Holy Ghost is exactly what she needs in order to help her progress, and he basically said I was lying and that you don't receive the Holy Ghost by Priesthood holders or anything like that, but we receive it once we look for it and find it. Wrong. I explained that the influence of the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost are very very different, and that the latter is received by the laying on of hands by Priesthood holders. He told me I was wrong. I asked him if he had read the Bible. He said no. After a few minutes of trying to explain to him, he said: Well, thank you for the visit, and here is the door. Bummer. But we called Sofia's mom a few days later, and she told us that she would give permission for Sofia to be baptized this week, but only if she improves her behavior at home. We accepted the offer and have her baptismal interview scheduled for Wednesday. Please pray that everything will work out well.

So the other day Elder Escobar and I were knocking doors and totally found a recent convert from Salt Lake City! Her husband lives here in Mexico, and was listening to the missionaries before but had to come back to Mexico to renew his papers. Can you say MIRACLE? In Spanish?! If you can't, it's MILAGRO! So we'll see how things work out with him this week.

We had a sweet Zone Activity this morning, I'm sending some pictures, along with other pictures from our meetings with the Ward Mission Leader. Enjoy.

Hugs and kisses (psych...can't do that. I'm a missionary.)

Elder Budge