No Water

 Welp. It is probably not the best way to start this email, but the water situation has been less than ideal this week. I'll get it out of the way and say that we didn't have running water for four days. We're supposed to get it every night. The pila was running very low.  Luckily we have water now.

It also goes without saying: this is very late. P-day was very busy and I didn't get to write it until now. Élder Valdovinos said it would be okay to send my email late this time because of the circumstances.

Anyway, the church leaders here are awesome (and the members are too)! They have been very helpful with teaching and planning. We were able to visit Victor Manuel with President Troches and with Hermano Hinmer (President of Elders Quorum and Ward Mission Leader). We had very good, powerful lessons. It's just too bad that Hermano Hinmer talks too much.

Anyway, we've got a couple of people that seem to be learning and progressing! They ask really good, meaningful questions. They do keep mentioning, however, that they are Evangelicals and go to a different church. But they seem so close to the truth!

Now, here's something I'm not proud of: we bashed a member. She's about 60 years old, and was baptized 5 months ago. It turns out that she has absolutely no testimony of the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith as a prophet. I have no idea how she was baptized. Those are some of the first baptismal interview questions! Either one of two things happened (or maybe even both): 1. She lied.

2. The missionaries before were very lazy, and they only saw her baptism as a way to boost numbers to brag about. Apparently one of the elders was here right before I was. I hope I can get the chance to talk to him so I can find out what happened.

I also got a haircut today. I spent all the time (and more) of my comps haircut talking with a guy who spoke a lot of English. He asked me a couple questions about the church, and I answered them, but he didn't accept my answer for why we do baptisms on behalf of those who are dead. I'm gonna leave it here as my spiritual thought.

1 Corinthians 15:29 reads:

"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?"

Now, it is important to always read scriptures in context, or you can very easily get the wrong message. In this chapter, the apostle Paul is explaining to the church members in Corinth about the resurrection because they don't believe it exists. But they were already doing baptisms for the dead. Paul taught that we perform ordinances on behalf of the dead because there are so many people who have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ, let alone about His gospel, so of course they've never been baptized! Of course, God's commandments can't be taken back, neither did He say "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, or just wish that he was, can he enter into the Kingdom of God." The scriptures say that it absolutely is necessary! Therefore, we perform the ordinance on behalf of those who are dead, which they can accept or deny. Just as they can accept or deny any other principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Welp, I'll finish that off now. I hope you all are doing well and are able to shower daily (I was able to, but I probably wouldn't have been able to if we went even another day without more water). Take care, and may God bless you.

Pictures are:

Us with a couple of our friends (I need to remember their names better)

Fun(only) way to get to a part of our area

Dirty water to shower with (all we've had)

Us with Victor Manuel (this is why I don't like to take the pictures, I look awful)

A manhole from when it was raining Thursday

Us with Hermano Christofer: a recent convert who is planning on serving a mission and has been a huge help to us.