Email November 4, 2013

Hello Family! These weeks are really going by so fast: I can't believe this transfer is almost over. We've got some good plans for the next two weeks too, so it'll be over before we know it. Things are a little crazy here in Aibonito: One of our investigators has a crazy lover who came over to her house while we were there the other day. He broke her car window, threatened to beat her daughter, and then drove off. Then Saturday night we visited her and she was back together with her old boyfriend. Ay ay ay...We don't really know what to do with her anymore. We're planning to have a lesson with her to talk to her about the atonement. The struggle is that she is super flaky. Amarilis is progressing. We taught her last night about the priesthood. Before that, she told us she's reading the Book of Mormon and that she believes the church really is the kingdom of God. However, she just sticks to those things she was taught in the methodist church. She said, "I never heard them talk about the priesthood in my old church." We taught her about the apostasy (AGAIN) and explained that was why. We (for lack of a better way of explaining) gave her a smack down last night about the priesthood and about needing to pray to know if what we're teaching her is true. We have only taught her about the doctrines relating to the first lesson (the restoration) because she needs to gain a testimony of them. It's really frustrating that she simply won't pray. We asked her if she was afraid to find out if it was true, and she just said, "It's not easy to be taught one thing your whole life and then be taught another thing." She's right, and we understand that completely. It would be incredibly difficult! I have all the sympathy in the world for her. But the stress within me is caused by that reality that if she doesn't accept the truth, it will only bring her grief. We're praying for her to continue to have faith in the Lord. The great thing in the branch is that there is a consistent number of people now attending: 29-31 people each week. The biggest problem is the consistency, and that seems to be changing. However, there are some strong members--needed members--who are still inconsistent. I have it in my plans to visit one of them this week: he used to be the gospel principles teacher but had a fight with his wife and stopped coming to all three hours of church. I'm going to go with one of the zone leaders to visit him: I'm going on exchanges with them. For Halloween we had to be in the house at 6:00. We went down to Barranquitas to have a family home evening with the zone leaders and one of the young families in the branch, then we stayed the night down there, playing cards with the zone leaders. The bed was really stiff, but they have a sweet apartment. We are helping with the seminary class here. The seminary teacher is a really great guy: he has a lot of desire to be obedient and help the youth. But he has a really mixed up understanding of the scriptures. Oh man. Lots of work to do in the kingdom. From the smallest part to the biggest part. Love you all! Elder Cevering