I LOVE THIS!!!

Dear Familia,

This work is the greatest. This week was awesome! The Lord blessed us with tons of success. We had two baptisms, this week. Rafael and Juan both got baptized. It was great. They were both baptized by a member which is the way to do it. Juan is the boyfriend of one of our very strong members and has been taught everything multiple times. His problem was he could never come to church on a consistent basis. We finally had an intense lesson with him a couple weeks ago, committed him to look with faith for a new job and put him on date for baptism. He starts his new job next week. He was baptized by his girlfriend's dad; very spiritually uplifting.

 Rafael was a media referral. He is basically the exact same case as Juan. He just gets more Sundays off than Juan does. He has been to church over 10 times and comes more often than our Ward Clerk so we decided to dunk him anyways. He will also start a new job in the next few months. He was baptized by Hermano Quintero. Before Hermano Quintero and Rafael were both baptized they both went to this Catholic youth group deal together. Quintero was one of the youth, and Rafael was the leader. After a long time of not  Rafael, my companion and I split up because we had too many appointments that night. I took Quintero to Rafael and after some reminiscing; we started the lesson, and had him on date by the end. It was tender to see the emotions of both during the baptismal service.

To top it off, we had 9 investigators to church! The Pena's came. We had a super cool experience with them. We had a lesson with them Saturday. They said they went to a family party the night before and their family members are all hardcore Pentecostals. They have like 3 aunts who are all pastors. Ridiculous. They all found out that Vianca and Silvia were both going to be baptized and had a conniption. They were all freaking out yelling at both of them, and then Silvia yelled, "This makes me want to be Mormon even more!" I did a fetchin fist pump in the middle of the lesson. I was so stoked. They will both be baptized this coming Sunday.

 Yolanda also came to church. She is as solid as ever and will also be baptized the coming Sunday. Then a couple of new investigators named Maria and Miguel came to church as well. We have only taught them one lesson and they came to church and the baptism yesterday. Maria is 19 and Miguel is 25 and they have been here in the US for like months, straight out of Michoacan, Mexico. They are looking super solid, reason being, is because they live in Mecca. The drive from Mecca to the church is like an hour drive. These people have literally nothing. NOTHING. Super poverty stricken, and it is very humbling.

 Then Luciano, a guy who has been taught everything also drove out from Mecca to church. We haven't been able to talk to him for a WHILE and he just showed up. He knows the BoM is true and basically needs to receive the answer that he needs to be baptized and that's it. We have LOT's of work going. The Taylor's didn't come to church and we haven't been able to see them in a while. We found 7 new investigators this week and are making this work more like an escalator than an elevator. Always be finding, teaching, and baptizing, at the same time. It's difficult but as we are diligent and faithful, and obedient, God will make it happen. He's waiting to pour out blessings, upon the obedient and faithful.

I LOVE THIS!! I literally do not want to come home and stop being a full-time missionary. It is the BEST TWO YEARS and that is sooo cliche but sooooo true. I love you!

-Elder Matt Dial