January 14, 2013 Week #4 in Cosamaloapan

Elder Lehikainen and His trainer and AWESOME companion, Elder Charles

Feasting upon the words of Christ

hola hola mi familia!!! This past week was amazing even though we didnt have any baptisms. We had a family at church this past sunday and Marisol was at church as well. These past couple of weeks have been very humbling and I have really had to start really on heavenly father and our savior Jesus Christ more and more. So Elder Charles and I have been working very hard and we havent been seeing the fruits of our labors until these past 5 days. This past miercoles another baptismal date fell through with felipe and he doesnt really want to talk to us anymore because of his family traditions of being catholic and what not. So we went to our next lession after we found out he didnt want to meet with us anymore and that fell too. I felt like we needed to pray so we went behind this house and more or less poured our hearts out to our Heavenly Father. That is really when things started to turn around. We have started really working with the members oh and yeah we have a building that is a year old dad. So we have really started working with the members here and trying to bring inactives back into the ward. We have a new goal to increase the asistance by 10 percent every month and this week we went from 70 people in sacrament to 101. What a miracle and a blessing that was because the ward here is slowly dieing.
  So this family that was at church sunday the father is a member his name is carlos and he has been inactive for about 10 years. His wife Mari is not a member and she is going to be baptized this 26th of enero. She is soo awesome and they have 3 little kids. More than anything I cant wait to see them in the temple in a year and that is there goal as well after mari is baptized. After our first lesson last sunday I couldnt help but see them in white going to the temple and I think for now on that is going to be my goal to picture our investigators in white. We found another family last night there names are Ana Louda, Acerdo and oscar all three of them have accepted a baptimal date for this 27th and the same with them I cant wait to see them in white the 27th and a year from now. The son Oscar is 18 and he just gets it. He understands already why this gospel is so very important for alll of us in this life. We had another miracle fall into are laps we were having a lesson with one of our investigators named gui and her friend was there here friend told us about her neighbor named Alexis he is 14 and had been talking with the Elders before and we some reason or another he fell in the cracks and hasnt been meeting with the Elders anymore over these past 2 years. Anyways yesterday we went over and talked to him and his mother he is getting baptized this saturday and he and his mom told us that he wants to be a missionary some day. Marisol is getting baptized for sure this miercoles and she was at church. Every lesson with here we have been going with a member and that has really helped. Ahhh this week has been Awesome and my testimony has grown so much. I gave a talk yesterday and I spoke on faith, hope and charity. I tried to explain in my baby spanish that we all have faith in our savior Jesus Christ and that we have felt his love throught the atonement in our lives. Then I went on to talk about how this has giving us hope in this life and then I shared jacob 2:19 and it says after we have recieved this hope in our lives we must help those that are hungry and afflicted physically but we must also be charitable to thoughs that are afflicted spiritually and share the hope that we have in our lives with those that have no hope.
   I have eaten this soup called manuto and it is cow stomach soup and it tasted like a cow stomach haha I ate chicken feet this week and that wasnt that bad. President I am sure knows we dont have any hot water lol and the language is getting better. Last week in a taxi I had a decent regular converstation with the taxista that was pretty cool I felt like elder calhoun. I am doing great I love this work and I thank my heavenly father everyday for the opportunity to serve him and his children here in veracruz. It truly is a blessing. I have been reading Jesus the Christ and have been trying to come to know my savior more and more. I truly want to become his friend over these next 2 years and I want to tell him yea lord I love thee when I am able to see him again. I am in helaman 12 in the book of mormon and in nefi 16 in spanish. Where are you all lol? oh mormon 9 is amazing and you all should read it this week.
 I love this gospel I have to go but I want to leave you with my testimony that I know with out a doubt this church is true. That our heavenly father loves us so very much. That our Savior Jesus Christ died for us and he knows us. When we are in or having a hard time we need to remeber that he is always there. I love yoou alll and may god be with you till we meet again.
Love you son, brother, and friend
-Elder Ryan Thomas Lehikainen