Missed the parade, just headed to Mexico instead

You'll never guess where I am...

Well it's been another crazy week in SLC and now... in Mexico! I flew out this morning at 10, arrived around 3, met with President Call, had dinner, and now I'm at the mission office, where I'll be spending the night with the APs. However, I'll start at the beginning...

This week we found a new family (Still in SLC), and they seem really solid. Their mom died and their dad left at a young age, so now it's just a 22 year old girl named Yarida and a 16 year old boy named Rolando. We taught the plan of salvation, and they were very receptive. We comitted them to be baptized on August 6, but they didn't show up to sacrament because of an unexpected emergency that they wouldn't explain, so it will have to be the 13. Other than that, we've had a crazy week because we decided to drop a lot of our investigators because no one was really progressing. Because of that, we went out contacting all the referrals, formers, and doing a lot of tracting to try and find new investigators. We did find a few, including that other family. One was a couple that we got married, but I don't think they're really interested in the church, but that still means, in the words of Elder Freitas, "one less pair of fornicators in the world". The best part of the week, though, was with a girl named Larisa. We'd been trying to contact her without much success, though she did show up to church last week. Finally, we talked to her on Friday, and something really touched her, and she broke down crying and told us she wanted to be baptized tomorrow (Saturday). It was an absolute miracle, so we arranged everything, and she got baptized. Unfortunately, Marco didn't get baptized because a member that he is close with talked him out of it for the time being. We definitely chastised the member (the right way, not just angrily), and have been teaching Marco more, and he will probably be baptized either the 30, or Aug. 6. I barely missed marching in the Pioneer day parade (because, you know, I'm in Mexico...), but it's all good.

I'm glad everything is going well at home. It's good to hear that everyone's keeping busy, especially dad, getting drunkards arrested and what not. Good work. It takes me back to that time we got those other two guys arrested for shining a laser pen in your rearview mirror on the freeway. Good times. I'm glad Tara's enjoying her job. That'll be a really good thing for her, especially if she's going to be dating as much as she is, she'll need money eventually. I'm glad she's also getting used to driving stick. That means you're finally taking good care of my car, and I may stop mentioning it in every single letter. It sounds like things are busy in the Sevilla residence as well. I'm glad Lys is getting to spend more time with Andrew and at home. I'm sorry he's being difficult with his new teeth, but you'll be happy he has them later in life, I promise. Mom, thanks for covering for me with Sister Pearl, I'm sure she appreciates it. That's great that you were able to wrangle the kids and have a good lesson/singing time. It's important that they learn early to behave themselves, or they'll end up like, well, most of my age group (I can only say that because they're all on missions and can't read this). That's funny that dad and Tara were so close to me Saturday. I knew that you were always close in the back of my mind, but it never really seemed like you were really that close... but now you're not. For everyone asking if I got what they sent, yes, I did to the best of my knowledge. To Sharon, I wasn't quite in Rose Park, but I imagine it's very similar to where I was (Riverside).

My new address is

Elder Joseph Facer
Apartado Postal 98
Cuautitlan Izcalli, Edo. de Mexico 54740

and anyone outside of immediate family has to write by hand as per the rules in my mission. I guess Salt Lake doesn't have as high of standards as Mexico... I still hope to hear from people, though. I don't hear from friends as much, but that's probably because I forgot to put my SLC address in my last letter. Now, nobody has an excuse.

I hope all continues to go well in Utah. I'm glad that the church is having a big part in your lives, and hope that it always will. The gospel brings so much joy into our lives that we literally can't live without it. This is the Lord's church and His work. Me, Brigham, and all the other missionaries throughout the world are helping Heavenly Father in His purpose (Moses 1:39), and the work we do can't be measured by wordly means. Heavenly Father loves you, and is willing to bless you as long as you keep His commandments and live up to your covenants.

Que tengan una semana buena

Elder Joseph Facer