San Jose week 2

phone, but here's how my week went: Tuesday is Taco Tuesday for us here. We have District Council each Tuesday morning, and afterwards, we all get tacos for lunch, so it's pretty fun. Later, we mainly just did finding/contacting, and we nearly met our weekly goal for finding people in that one day. On Wednesday, we had a couple meetings at the mission office, and later we were finding/contacting again. A few miracles happened today. For one, I randomly swerved to the right on my bike once, and an apple fell right where my head would've been. We didn't have helmets yet, so I was definitely protected in that moment. For another, we met someone right when they pulled into their driveway, and they were willing to listen to us teach them right there on a spot. We were even able to ask if he would be willing to meet with us again and prepare for baptism, and he said yes. He was just super humble and willing to let the Spirit speak to him, which led us to be inspired to talk about baptism that early on. On Thursday, I had my first interview with the mission president. He's a super great guy, and he even asked if he could give me a priesthood blessing at the end, which was nice. Later, we had a super great meeting with a guy, Justin, and his wife, Jacie. Elder Schumann-Curtis had been meeting with Justin for several weeks while his wife and kids were out of town, just answering all the questions he could ever ask about all of our doctrine, but baptism had never been a committment yet. Today was the first time his wife was there to hear a lesson, and it was my first time meeting them at all. We were there for three hours, which is not something you should usually do haha, but it was really good, the Spirit was definitely strong there. They were both raised Christian, but they had a lot of questions that weren't able to be sufficiently answered, or concepts like a black and white heaven and hell didn't seem exactly right, so they weren't part of any specific denomination. Through the Spirit, however, we were able to answer all the questions they had and connect all the dots in their heads, and we just watched the Spirit work on Jacie and confirm to her that what we had to say was true and that we are truly representatives of Jesus Christ and His restored Church. When we were about to state Joseph Smith's experience with the First Vision, the adversary tried very hard to keep us from saying it. Random alarms went off, the dogs and kids ran into the room, all these distractions were happening right when we were about to state the First Vision. Elder Schumann-Curtis, who had experienced this before, patiently waited, and once everything had settled, he brought back the Spirit through the First Vision, and the Spirit once again was able to testify to her. By the end, she was actually testifying with us that Justin should get baptized, and, without any promoting from us, she volunteered to bring the kids to church since Justin couldn't go. It was awesome watching the Spirit converting her right in front of us, and I'm glad I could have that experience early on in my mission. Friday was my first exchange, so I went to my District Leader's area to work with him for the day, and his companion was with Elder Schumann-Curtis. It was good; we spent a lot of the day walking and contacting in the hot sun because most of our appointments fell through, but the evening was nice. We met with a homeless guy who was a member of the Church but stopped going a while ago, so we talked with him, shared a scripture, and gave him a Book of Mormon to read. Later, we had dinner with a family that they had been teaching for a while, and they love the missionaries. Like when we had tried stating the First Vision to Jacie, there were plenty of distractions that tried pulling the Spirit away from our message, and they later told us about their experiences with the adversary's forces in a physical way and how it has affected other areas of their apartment complex as well. I won't go into detail about it, but as they were telling us about it, all I wanted to do was go throughout the apartment and rebuke every demon I encountered in order to bring peace to this family. We offered to give a priesthood blessing to them then, but they didn't want one in the house or at that time yet because they were worried about what opposition may occur. I was only in that area for the day, but I could feel the love that God has for that family, and I hope they're able to receive peace soon. On Saturday, we were able to meet with Justin and Jacie again to more fully explain the plan of salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like last time, the Spirit was strong, we were able to answer all their questions and address their concerns, and we helped them understand the importance of baptism and why we want them to make that step together. Long story short, both of them will be getting baptized in two weeks! They truly have been prepared by the Lord to hear His message at this time, when they're ready to accept it. Although we want the kids to be baptized at the same time, we haven't been able to teach them specifically, and both we and their parents want that to be something they decide, so it'll probably happen at a later date. But still, I'm excited for this family. On Sunday, Jacie wasn't able to make it because something came up with one of the kids, so Elder Schumann-Curtis and I were a bit devastated and worried that they weren't as ready for baptism like we thought they were, but we talked with her later, and they're still fully on board with getting baptized, and they're excited for it, so thank goodness haha. We then were with a couple more Elders to watch a Face to Face with Elder Bednar and his wife, and we later were street contacting (with Elder Schumann-Curtis again pushing me to talk to people and start a conversation, which I absolutely loved haha). Anyways, glad we could talk and that I could hear from you. My companion is busy filming a reel right now, but he has a picture that has our address on it, so I'll send it when I get it. Love you, Elder Enger