Another week...

This week was pretty slow again.  Not too much of anything happened...  The bishop did start a new, really cool program though. It was inspired by a general authority that visited (Elder Villareal). He's trying to get the whole ward council and all the ward missionaries to go out from four to six every sunday and visit less active members.  The last half hour everyone is supposed to meet back at the church and report the good experiences to help everyone else. This week was kind of sad because just the second counselor and ward mission leader (and all the missionaries) came...  The bishop was a champ, though, and decided we'd just go for it this week and hopefully the numbers would start growing.  I know a lot of people would've just put it off until the next week when hopefully more people would come. He knows the secret to getting things done though; just do it and lead by example.  So yeah, it was a pretty good week, but there really aren't any other stories.  Not much happened in the way of finding or teaching that's worth hearing about.  Oh! Max did come to church again and is getting more and more excited!  It's been a really gradual thing, so we'll see what happens.  Also, we get transfer calls next sunday and everyone seems to think I'm leaving.  Anyways, I've got to get going, but I hope everything goes well for y'all!  I love you  Elder Katzakian

Another Monday Holiday

We were on exchanges on tuesday, so I was actually somewhere else, but
my companion and the other elder had a really good lesson with Perla,
where she realized what the spirit was and that she felt it every time
she went to church or read the book of mormon and that she needs to
get baptized and her boyfriend moved out and she was crying and her
member friend was crying and the missionaries were crying and the veil
was so thin that when they taught something she just knew it was true.
So I was kinda sad to have missed that... but it was good.  We
weren't able to line up schedules with her again, though, and she
didn't make it to church because she had to babysit some kids because
she has been needing work really bad since her boyfriend left.  She
should be getting baptized soon, though.


Also, max came to a baptism of one of the sister missionaries'
investigators, and had a good experience, and apparently told one of
the other missionaries there that he was going to be the next one
getting baptized, which the other misionary didn't tell us until later
and we didn't have a chance to talk to max about, so that's still
pending as well.


We found the Aguilar family again, but I think they were deliberately
avoiding us... we have an appointment tonight, so we'll see if they
really do want to talk to us or not.  It could've just been bad
timing, though, because the dad was in the hospital a little for an
injury at work.


There have actually been a few injuries around us lately and it
worries me sometimes...  We are involved in an important work and it
is true that the enemy will do all he can to hurt and destroy.
Obedience to all of the rules is important, because many of the
seemingly unimportant ones are there because of a previous or foreseen
injury or death.


Also, the other night, we got stopped by the police.  We were walking
home at night, so it was pretty dark, and we were catching up to this
guy who was walking the same way and dressed all in black, carrying a
white bag.  The police drove by and shined their light on him, then
us, then him again, and stopped him.  We got stopped a little way up
the road by another officer while the first guy was being frisked and
found out that a door had been kicked in and the apartment robbed a
few minutes ago in the apartments we were walking away from by three
guys wearing all black, one of them carrying a white bag.  So that
made us pretty suspicious looking.  When he figured out we were
misionaries, though, he just took our information and let us go.  Then
there was an accident in a nearby intersection, and I think they ended
up getting the real culprits there because they crashed while they
were trying to get away.


Anyways, that's pretty much the week.  Nothing else too crazy
happened.  Just lot's of walking and knocking.  
Love you a ton!!!


Elder Katzakian

Feb 13th letter

This cool guy named Antonio came to church yesterday.  We
taught him almost a month ago, and sorta forgot about him since he
didn't show a ton of promise... It was kinda hard because he was a
little drunk at the time, but he expressed desires to overcome his
alcoholism, he just didn't know how.  We left him with The Book of
Mormon and our number, telling him it would help him find the strength
to change, and to call us when he was ready.  Then, the other night,
the english ward missionaries ran into him and found out we'd taught
him before and invited him to church.  He accepted the invitation and
came.  We had to get him a ride, but he really enjoyed it and wants to
keep coming and be more involved.  We'll be working with him for the
next little while.


Perla is still going strong.  We're going to be working on a marriage
goal with her tomorrow.  She had a couple of questions about why
Joseph Smith was so important, and hadn't been reading the Book of
Mormon too much, but we explained the importance of all that and got
her going again on the book.


I think we accidentally put way too much pressure on Max, and he got a
little scared... He did come to church, but we're going to give him a
little break to see if it's something he wants or if he's just doing
it to make the members he's living with happy.


Anyways, the other day we were knocking on some trailers when a couple
goats came out of the bushes and followed us around.  They kind of
scared my companion a little because he thought they were going to ram
us, but they were pretty funny.  They tried to eat my sleeve a couple
times, and did butt me softly in the leg, but they were nice and went
with us to all the doors.  It made a great conversation starter haha.
I didn't have my camera though... I'll make sure to bring it next time
we go over there.  That reminds me!  I said I'd send pictures a little
while ago and never did....  I need to do that haha.  Sorry about that


I think I forgot to tell you the story of a couple weeks ago when this
random lady told us she likes to give food and gave us a huge pizza
and a bunch of huge bags of pizza toppings.  That was cool and has
made meals easier since most of the toppings were meat, we just add it
to everything and it becomes more filling.


I know how to make a bunch more mexican and south american dishes now,
so that should be pretty exciting later on.  It also turns out I
really like menudo (or it was probably called mondongo in dad's
mission...) I may have mentioned that, though.  Also habaneros.  They
are delicious.  Really hot, but really good.  On the anglo side of
things, though, I've also been eating a lot of peanut butter.

 Have a great week and a happy valentine's day, and I love you.


Elder Katzakian

Feb 6th letter

So my new companion is Elder Turner.  He's from Salt Lake city, and he
started his mission in the Dominican Republic.  He's pretty awesome,
and I'm really excited because he's the first companion I've had where
we could legitimately speak spanish all the time and actually
understand eachother, so i feel like we're both going to learn a lot
really fast.  He also has this kind of laid back energy and fire that
helps us have a lot of success.  He has a deck of Pokemon cards, too
haha.

Anyways, Perla is desirous to be baptized, but her boyfriend needs to
get divorced from his previous wife and he's not in a hurry to tdo
that... she doesn't want to leave him, though, because they have a kid
together... we're going to be talking to her about that and her kids
more tonight.

Also, we're going to be teaching a girl who's nine years old and
didn't get baptized because she thought she had to know the articles
of faith... That was kinda funny but kind of sad, because she's just
barely turning nine before the time the baptismal font is available,
and that requires our teaching and such, but she wanted to get
baptized sooner once she found out she didn't have to memorize the
articles of faith...

I've got to get going now, but i love you and I'lll talk to you next week.

Elder Katzakian

He is back with more letters

So this week has been very busy.  I'm finally seeing real purpose behind the daily records we keep.  We've
been talking to so many different people I can't keep it all straight. That's a good thing, but it's a little exhausting haha.  So little Jorge is pretty much set on going to a bunch of other churches
before he comes back or settles on one, and he's not super
enthusiastic about talking to us anymore, so that's kind of a
bummer... but his little sister is amazing. She reads the Book of
Mormon and prays every day and she says she's received an answer and
that it's true and she is sure she wants to be baptized, but daddy
Jorge wants her to wait because he wants her and her brother to choose
together and agree...  we're still helping him with his vices and
stuff, too.  This last Sunday they accidentally slept in a little
because of a late Saturday, and didn't quite make it to church, but
they'll be there next week and a couple other kids were just left with
them and they got permission from the parents to take them to church
and be taught and stuff, though, so that's neat.

Max did make it to church this week.  He's really committed to
changing his life and coming to God, and he wants to get baptized; he
just wants to get his life more in order first.  We're working on a
goal with him.

We found this really cool family, the Garcias, who are excited to
learn, as well.  We've taught them a couple times, and told them
they'll want to get baptized, but I don't think they really understood
the first time because they just kind of wen of about how their church
wasn't that great, and it was too bad that it was their church, but
they were born into it, so what can you do, right?  Anyways, the
second time, (wow I almost can't think of how to word this because I'm
thinking it in Spanish and typing in English) upon hearing the account
of the first vision and what it meant, they proceeded to explain
unusual encounters with spirits they had had in the past with us and
ask us about what they might mean, and then we had to go, so I think
they still don't really get it... but their daughter (she's like
twenty) is eating it all up.  We left a pamphlet and she studied it
multiple times and answered all the  "additional study" questions in
the back, and told us about a friend who would also be interested.
They all also agreed to read/pray about the Book of Mormon.  We'll see
what happens.

We also met a guy on the street near his house who went to church for
like a year in Arizona, then moved to some town in the sticks of Texas
where there was neither church nor missionaries.  They recently moved
to Austin and we fond them.  They're the Chacon family and they've got
four kids, one of them nine months old and recently released from the
hospital for some sickness she had...  They're really struggling
financially and stuff, but they love God and like the Book of Mormon,
and hopefully we'll be able to help them.

There are a bunch of other random people we ran into and taught, but
those are probably the coolest for now.

The other night, we had a dinner with the Lopez family (Cheeto, the
one who got baptized) and it was really good.  They live on a farm and
killed and cooked one of their own chickens for Elder Sefcik (he's the
one who did the physical baptizing, so Cheeto always calls him
"Padrino" [Godfather]), and we had cake.  Todos le dimos una mordida
(we all took a bite, but "una mordida" is different kinda... we all
went to bite the cake, and had it shoved in our face).  Cheeto said he
didn't want to do it because he had a sore throat, but when his wife
didn't want to he put her in a headlock and put the cake on her face,
the funniest part, though, was that while he was thus occupied, I told
Elder Sefcik, who was sitting closer, to put Cheetos cake in his face,
which he did. It was basically absolutely hilarious.  We got some good
pictures, and I'll send those next week.


Elder Katzakian

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was a day of much food. I think I ended up eating a total of fifteen tamales, two plates of beans, one of rice and one of carnitas, as well as some chicken salad dessert tamales, sweet bread, and a couple glasses of milk.  That was all just the dinners...  I had a bunch of tres leches for lunch and a sandwich for breakfast. 

Christmas was brisket, beans, donuts, rice, green beans, and fruit salad.  That was also a lot...  It's funny, there's never a consstent balance in quantity of food... We're either hungry or being given so much food we want to die haha.  It's okay though.  Kinda fun.

Nothing else really exciting happened this week.  Lot's of people were out of town or working.  We did have one of our dinners with a friend of a recent convert who is very excited t learn more, but he's going to be very busy until next week, so we won't be abe to see him until then, most likely...  His name is Juan, though.

 
Anyways, today we're on a member's computer because the libraries are closed, so this'll have to be short again... sorry.  I hope everything is going great with you, and I love you guys.

Elder Katzakian

Austin is cold but great!

So this week was interesting.  I talked to people from lots of countries besides mexico this week; cuba, honduras, puerto rico, colombia... and I think that's actually it, but it felt like a lot.  Also it's been raining a lot, and it's pretty cold today.  It's about 40 degrees

 

Last night something kinda cool happened.  Actually, two somethings... the first one is less pertinent because it was in English, so you probably won't hear about it again, but it's cool anyways.  We knocked on this apartment door kinda late at night, well... it was like seven, but it's been getting dark around six and there were a bunch of stormclouds in front of the stars, so it was way dark.  Anyways, there we were, knocking on an apartment door in the dark rain, in suits and intimidating black coats (Elder Sefcik has a longer black raincoat, and mine is a P-coat), and this scared Lady answers it thinking we're the police, not knowing what she did or what happened.  It made some good laughs when she figured out who we were, and then she got pretty serious again and started asking us questions about the Second Coming, infant baptism, eternal marriage, and other cool gospely things.  She's been getting kinda scared by all the things going on and she and her boyfriend have been thinking they need to get married seeing how they already live together and have a daughter, and had some questions about all that.  We explained to her the readers digest version of the history of christianity and that we were messengers sent by God through a living prophet to answer her questions.  She is excited to learn about being sealed to her family and how that was brought back (more in depth) and how she can more closely follow God in her life to ensure happiness and security for her family.  It was awesome to feel the spirit testify through us to help her feel that God had sent us there at that very time to help her specifically to acheive the joy he wanted for her.  Additionally, we were only there because of some other random occurrences earlier in the week and that day.

 

Second cool thing:  We were running out of time and had planned to be somewhere else, but we felt we should finish talking to the people in the aforementioned apartment building, and because we stayed for those extra couple minutes we ran into a couple walking up the stairs with their laundry, and asked if we could teach them a message about the gospel, and they said yes, so we followed them up into their apartment, where we met the three other people staying there who all turned out to be interested as well, so they turned off the soccer game and learned about the restoration of the gospel.  They are all also excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon and what that means.

 

It had been a really tough week before last night, but those people made it all worth it. 

 

Anyways, love you, talk to you next week.

 

Elder Katzakian