This was the week of transfers. I stayed in the same area, but with a little surprise. Formerly, we shared the branch here with Elder Francis and his companion, but when we looked at the chart, we saw that his companionship had changed to the other branch in the city. Translation: a lot more walking on our part, and an extremely hectic first week trying to get to know the investigators that they were leaving behind.

Also, Leo decided that he didn’t want to get baptized. It seems like he’s having some pretty big problems between him and his family. I don’t know why he won’t just pray and really try to know that what we taught him is true. It would really fix everything that that family is going through. It’s always sad when things like this happen, but with Leo we really helped him in everything that he let us. I feel like we fulfilled our purpose as missionaries.

This week we do have a baptism though. Eulogia, an older lady that we found three weeks ago is really excited for her baptism. She is also going through some family problems. The branch president said that her husband is notoriously violent in the neighborhood where they live. He doesn’t hit her, but she says that she just can’t take any more. She had decided to move to Paraguay last week, but then decided against it so that she could be baptized. She’s going to wait until after the baptism to decide what she’s going to do. I have so much respect for her and the decision that she made.

Other than that, we have several investigators that would be progressing if they would only go to church. I don’t know what to do with them. It’s kind of frustrating when you try so hard to help people when they don’t see the importance of helping themselves.

Elder Francis had a really sweet tie that I’d been coveting for a long time. I kind of make a game out of trading for the best ties. Anyway, when he first got to Eldorado, I asked him where he’d gotten the tie, to sort of size up what I’d have to give him in return and he said "My girlfriend sent it to me for Christmas." What a downer. I knew that there was no way he was going to trade that tie. Then, three weeks ago he gets the "Dear John." I waited a couple of hours, to my credit, before I asked "So...that tie?" He just handed it to me. The funniest part is this: for several weeks, I didn’t dare wear the tie, because Melissa is still waiting for me and I started to look at it as kind of a bad omen. I mean, it still has “I love Elder Francis” written in sharpie on the back. Today, I finally got the courage to put it on, so thanks Melissa for not sending me a Dear John.

Love,
Elder Rasband