Week 11

I don't have much time to write today because we've already spent most of the day. We walked to central Cartago to pay our bills and on the way back we ran into Jafet, a priest in our ward, and started a spontaneous game of soccer. We were in our church clothes so it was really hot but still super fun and we lost track of time :) But now I'm here at the church dripping in sweat typing as fast as I can!
This past week was more or less successful with less than half our appointments falling through, but something super sad is that Martin, the father of the family we've been teaching the past 5 weeks, said that he changed his mind about his baptismal date (and consequently his family's). It was set for Saturday (two days ago) but he didn't feel ready to take the step. One day (I don't remember what day it was) we were eating lunch with Hna. Andrea who has served a mission and we told her about Martin. She told us that in her mission every time somebody changed their mind about their baptism, it was because they weren't reading the Book of Mormon. So, the next day we visited Martin's family and asked if they had been reading the book of Mormon as we challenged a while ago, and it turned out that they hadn't. They said they didn't have time etc. but the reality is that it wasn't a priority, which I totally understand. Before my mission it was really hard to make reading the Book of Mormon a priority, and I rarely wanted to read it, but I can tell you that without fail I always felt uplifted when I chose it over other things. So we helped them understand its importance, and helped them chose a consistent time that they could read it as a family (as a family because Fatima - the mom - cant read, and one kid isn't old enough to read yet). They agreed and so far they've read every day since Thursday and have accepted this Saturday to be baptized! I know that the Book of Mormon can help people to have spiritual experiences and develop faith in Christ because it has done that for me. Here's 2 super awesome things that my favorite prophet said about the BoM:
"Those who have read the Book of Mormon prayerfully, be they rich or poor, learned or unlearned,have grown under its power..."
"Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon regardless of how many times you have previously read it, there will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God"
Gordon B. Hinckley
So I challenge all of you to put that to the test! If you read it every week try to read it every day. If you've never read it, try it!!!!!!!!!

Love you all!
-Elder Hilton