Teaching Update....

What a great teaching week! We have been teaching and working with two young men and their families for a few weeks now. We feel blessed to be able to witness their progress and take part in their journey of learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had visitors on Wednesday. Elder Christenson and Elder Belmount, an Assistant to the President and Zone Leader, came to meet us and accompany us on a few of our appointments. They were sharp young men and taught with such power. We went to a local pizza place called Tejas for dinner but first we went to visit Honorio and his family. This picture of Honorio and 2 of his 3 children (he has a baby too) was taken at church on Sunday. He has been wonderful to teach. He reads the Book of Mormon, he prays, and he attends church. He says that he believes the church to be true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. What more could we ask for? We tried to commit him for baptism last week but he said that he needed some more time. The Elders were able to find out that one of the members of the branch had said something that confused Honorio about baptism. We were able to clarify and answer his questions and he committed to be baptized on August 28th. Elder Munroe will be baptizing Honorio at our branch building. It should be an exciting day. Now we need to get his wife, Maria, to start attending the discussions again too. You might remember the picture above. It was taken at Honorio's home on our first visit there. Honorio and Maria are in the middle with their 3 little ones below them. Maria's mother is on the far right side in the pink blouse. The rest of the kids are Maria's brothers and sister. We hope that the rest of the family will follow Honorio's example someday.Our next appointment was with Jose Jimenez, his sister, and her daughter. We had a Family Home Evening lesson with them at the Ballestro's home. Bro. Ballestro is our branch mission leader. They have had all of the discussions and attend church but have not wanted to commit to be baptized. The Elders tried to see if there was a specific concern that we could all help to resolve for him. He may have been more open about what is holding him back from taking that next step but there was a room full of people and he might not have wanted to share in front of so many people. We will have to attempt to help him again soon. Jose may need more time, however, his niece said that she is ready. She would like to be baptized soon. Our last visit was to a couple (sorry, we don't have a picture) who has been attending church but are not members. They are young and have a little girl who is three. They have had some issues with drugs over the last few years and have worked together to overcome that obstacle together. They feel that being members of the church would be something good for them. They committed to be baptized but we have to get them married first. We are "learning the ropes" of getting married in Costa Rica. We have to find them a lawyer that can marry them and then they will be able to be baptized. We are excited for all of the people that we are teaching and are thankful for them and the spirit that we feel as we associate with them.