Cole's Mission: Another Great Week!

On Monday and Tuesday, Elder Baladad and I had Zone Leader Conference at the mission home. It is always a fun time. You get to spend the night at the mission home and it is only the zone leaders. There are three of us from my batch now--Elder Doane, Elder Moody, and me.

On Wednesday, we had our Zone Leader Training, where we train the missionaries in our zone. It went good, but so far I have had to adjust what I have prepared at both trainings. The first one because Elder Saure was confused on what he was supposed to talk about and this last one because I only had 25 minutes to present an hour's worth of material. I had to train on "Our vision as a mission". I felt it went good, but it was hard trying to decide what to share and what to leave out.

We had to two baptisms last week. One for Brother Jacob Bolivar and one for Sister Azucena Suganob. Brother Bolivar's wife is scheduled to be baptized on April 27. Right now she is just wanting to get a little more comfortable at church. Her concern is her two 5-year old twins. They are pretty rowdy and she is a little embarrassed to take them to church. However, we had the Relief Society and Primary Presidents visit her, and we think she feels more comfortable. She has come to church six times not, but still wants to have her date as the 27th. The baptism was great and both of the candidates bore very strong testimonies. It is really cool to watch a man with a couple of tattoos and who has made some mistakes just bawl and talked about the changes in his life. Those are the moments this work is really fun and fulfilling.

The Ermano family is doing well. We had another communication issue and weren't able to teach them this week, but we visited them every day. The two men who are above the age so we can teach were in Mansilingan working all week. When they were there, we texted to tell them we were coming over and when we went, they weren't there. We later found out that when Elder Baladad saved the number in the phone, he mixed up two of the numbers . . . the little things Satan does to try and stop the work! However, one of their sons came to church and said he had so much fun. Last night when we stopped by on our way to a dinner appointment, the mom said that she is really interested to experienced the thing her son talked about. This week our goal is to teach them at least four times. We need to make up for some lost time!!!

The obedience thing with my companion is coming! During my training I tried to focus on the fact that even if we haven't been exactly obedient on our missions, even for missionaries close to going home, there is still time for them to be exactly obedient because of the atonement. All they need to do is repent and change. It was really good and it even struck me that if I mess up, I can repent and become exactly obedient. Needless to say, the sacrament was a little more meaningful and spiritual for me this last week. Also, without me saying anything, Elder Baladad actually did personal and sort of (25 minutes instead of an hour) companion study with me. Hey, slowly but surely, right?

Love you all!