My Dear Family,
Life in the mission is going well! This week we picked 9 New Investigators, and a family of 3 NI accepted the invitation to be baptized on May 31!! :D We taught them about the Restoration of the gospel (in my broken Spanish), and they felt very comfortable with it all! :) So we're gonna do everything we can to continue helping them to make it to that date! That was probably the best thing to happen this week haha :)
This past Saturday, we had a Noche de Peliqula (Movie Night) at our church building, that we've been spreading word about for about a month now, and we had a pretty good turn out! We watched "Conozca los Mormones" ("Meet The Mormons" in Spanish), and before the movie, Elder Martin and I gave a short lesson about the Plan of Salvation to help people keep in mind the questions of "Where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going?" while they watched the movie, and after the movie, we had a table set up with various lesson pamphlets, copies of the Book of Mormon, The Family proclamation, and pass-along cards so people could take what they wanted. so they could learn more.
This week I actually got to read the most recent talks that you sent me by Glenn L. Pace about Confidence in the Lord, and Self-Confidence. I'm sure the Spirit told you that I needed these talks, because I really did need them. In reading these talks I learned about trusting and having faith in God that He can use both my weaknesses and strengths for His purposes. I learned that I should not focus on my weaknesses, but rather need to trust that God can and will use my gifts and talents to help people.
I love you all so much! Please continue to write and email when you can!
With much love,
Elder Patrick Wockenfuss
[From Mary - I had mentioned to Patrick about (among other things) an article by Elder Hales, who knew someone who was confused by some "Mormon jargon". I had asked Elder Wockenfuss if he had ever come across anyone who was similarly confused. Here is his response.]
Dear Mary,
Whenever we teach people, we either try to use words that the investigator would understand, or we would explain what we mean when we say certain terms they wouldn't understand. In our studies, we would think about what we're gonna teach that day, and then we figure out how to teach without confusing people, and it turns out well in the end. But if they ever are still confused or unsure about what we say, we tell them to stop us anywhere and let us know what they don't understand, and we help them to understand before moving on.
This past week, God has given us 9 New Investigators! 3 of which have accepted a baptismal date for May 31! :D This week, God has also told me what a good missionary I really am. We were biking back home one night, and I just felt how proud God is of me for making this choice to serve for 2 years. And then I felt how proud you and the family are of me for doing this. I just took a look at myself and I believe the Spirit told me that not just anyone can say "I devoted 2 years of my life to serving God and bringing souls unto Christ," and not just any family can say, "That's my son" or "that's my brother, wearing that nametag and biking down the road after helping someone come that much closer to coming to Christ." After that, I felt much better inside, and I gave thanks to God for helping me to realize these things.
Thank you for writing to me! Please continue to write and email when you can!
With much love,
Elder Patrick Wockenfuss
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