February 23, 2011-I Love Spanish

?!Como les han ido todos?!
  This last week was SO incredibly amazing!!! The amount of people we are teaching and preparing for baptism just keeps increasing! First thing I learned this week, don't EVER eat this soup called 'menudo'. I had heard horror stories about it before and somebody finally cooked it for us this last week. It is a soup that is just full of these massive chunks of cow stomach/intestine and it is the chewiest meal EVER. haha I was struggling sooooooo hard to eat it, especially since they gave us massive portions. And to top it off we had every Mexicans favorite dessert, flan. also not the greatest, but they are a less-active family who we are really close with so we were still very grateful to be fed. Then the next day I went on exchanges with an English elder and went to do English work with him. We were sitting in one of his investigator's home and talking to her about what everything will be like when she gets baptized here in the next couple of weeks, but something about this lady just didn't seem right. I didn't know it, but her father-in-law who only speaks Spanish, was sitting in the back of the room listening to our entire conversation when he suddenly butts in and in Spanish so my companion and his daughter-in-law couldn't understand, starts telling me how she is not at all prepared or worthy for baptism. He tells me about how she needs to start taking more responsibility in life and get her act together and how she views baptism as something that is just going to solve everything. Quite frankly, he was ripping on her as she sat right there (but she was indian and didn't know a lick of Spanish). He then starts saying how she needs to understand more about the purpose of baptism as explained in 2 Nephi 31 and Mosiah 18. This guy isn't a member so when he said that I just busted into a huge smile, and asked him some questions about the Book of Mormon and asked him if he believed it is true. He answers that question by bearing his testimony that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and even said things like he knows that Moroni directed Joseph Smith to where the gold plates were...I was so ecstatic!! So I asked him and my real companion and I could return and talk with him some more and he said for sure!! It was such a cool experience that then turned into very awkward because his daughter-in-law and my companion asked me what he just said, and I told her that he doesn't feel she is ready for baptism and that the English missionaries would tell her why she isn't when they teach her next time haha it was really cool tho! The Gospel is sooo great and the change it can bring to our lives is amazing!! I hope all is well back home and give the little ones some loves for me!!!
Love,
Elder Michael J. Neilson