Sounds like everyone had a great week! Thanks for the emails. This week was a good one for me too.
First, the area is dangerous, but the police killed the leader of the main gang here and the rest of them are in jail. I almost contacted them about a week before but felt like I shouldn't. So anyways it is not nearly as dangerous anymore.
Tuxtla Gutierrez
Every night to go home we walk by the house of Itzelt, and one night she told me that her older sisters wanted to come to church. She was so happy and told me that her dream of the temple was coming true. It made me so happy to see that she wants her family to enjoy the gospel. Only one sister came, but in time I know the whole family is going to be listening to the missionaries.
Tuxtla Gutierrez at night
We also started teaching a couple that sells Bonice! Flor, and Edgar. It is awesome, but they are very, very poor. I don't know if I have been more humbled in my life. Their house is about the size of our kitchen/family room. They have 3 kids. The most money they can make in a day is about $20, in total, which rarely happens. They came to church this sunday and they said they liked it. It made me want to cry to think about the sacrifices they made to go, it costs about $2 to go to church and go back in combi, plus they usually work on Sundays. But they have so much faith, and I am just praying for the Lord to pour out blessings upon them. They are not married so we will see what we can do to help them so they can get baptized.
Elder Stevenson's current zone
We found another family that is awesome too. We contacted them a while ago and we were going to have a lesson with them, but they weren't home. Then we were walking by and the 8 year-old boy stopped us, and told us he wanted us to come in. We walked in and started talking to the Dad. It smelt like smoke in the house. His name is Isaías and he started telling us about his life. He used to drink a lot and didn't work. He started drinking when he was 12 and stopped more than 20 years later. He hasn't drank in 5 months. I was so touched by his desire to change. Then his son asked us how we can help him to stop smoking. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and he is going to stop smoking. They are a great family, but also not married with very little money.
Mark 16:15
Yesterday we went to La Rivera Cerro Hueco, a little development that is kind of far away from everything. Its the kind of place where if you are born there, you live there your whole life. And many of them have not seen white people before, or heard of Mormons. We looked for some references and EVERYONE was Catholic and didn't want to talk to us. It was rough and I felt like Alma and Amulek a little bit.
This week was great. I learned a lot about the commandments, and how we have them to prepare to become like God. We need to obey so that we can learn about that stuff.
I love you and miss you all!!
Con Amor,
Elder Riley Stevenson
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