June 19

I didnt have much time to write last week, so that's why my letter was crap. Perdon me. 

So this week was good, until last night. We went out and worked out BUTTS off. We contacted, asked memebers for help, did a ton of service projects and had a fun time. Elder Chota works super hard, but has me laughing always. I think we make a good pair. We had about 6 baptismal dates by the end of saturday. we were smiling, so proud of all the work we were doing, then came sunday. 

First of all, nobody caem to church. So that was discouraging. Then we went out to get the baptismal permission from the mom of one of our baptismal dates. the mom of 3 baptismal dates. Wilmar's mom in fact, the last baptism here. She said no to all 3 of here kids getting baptized. She said that they were acting bad in the house and doesnt feel they can be memebers of the church of jesus christ. si we left the house shaking our heads. 2 baptismal dates. That night we went to the house of some inactives who are slowly coming back to church and have a 9 year old daughter who is not baptized. When we came by, the family said no, and that they didnt want anything to do with us or joeseph smith anymore. Si we started walking to our only baptismal date, who is a shoe in to be baptized on my birthday.  she said she wanted to be baptized on th 5th of july so that we could celebrate. Shes the daughter of an inactive, and she asked us to be baptized. So we caem by super excited. When we got there, she told me sorry, but that she would rather be baptized on wednesday. So we said, heaven yeah, lets get it all set up. And ran her through the pre-interview. She got frustrated when she told us that she had to have an interview with president, due to certain things she disclosed to us, and told us she would call if she ever had the desire to be baptized again. She doesn't have a phone. 

0 baptismal dates. 

It's days and weeks like these, where you get back to the apartment exhausted, depressed, and in silence. Where you take a showet with your eyes closed and when you tuck yourself in at 10:00, and you don't sleep, because you just wonder what you're doing wrong. Where yopu lie in bed staring at the ceiling and the words of the lord of the vineyard ring out in your mind; "What could I have done more for my vineyard?" Its days like this when you just feel beat. 

We have a lot more references to contact this week, and we're hoping to just start over from scratch. It'll be hard, but we're up for the challenge. God wants to test us, then we can show him that we're not giving up. Like wrestlingf an angel, even when we dislocate our joints, we keep wrestling, beacuse we know how impórtant the gospel is. 

A little background on Elder Chota. His name is Brandy, so we're basically the same person. He was baptized at 17 years old, alone. Nobody else in his family are memebrs, and his girlfriend married his best friend. But he just keeps working. HE's short and talks funny, but he is incredible. 

I hope all is well with you guys, sorry I couldn't include more in this letter. Hopefully, when I have a cmera again, I can write letters every night and give you guys more deatails. 

cuídense! 

-Elder Beech