El Pozo y La liberacion

6 Nov 2009

Dear family,

It´s good to hear that the production is going well, even though there are a few kinks. I hope you have good attendence and that the spirit can have a powerful impact. I´d love to be there if I could to see it. Actually, I would love to be there to act in it. I kind of want to act in one of those special musical productions. The year I did it, it was fun, but still not of the same professional quality. I think I would put more effort into memorizing my part too. Here in the mission, many of the Elders say that I´ll sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (which makes me feel good, even though I doubt the possibility). It surprises me that most of the Elders know me for my voice more than for my piano abilities. I think I will want to take a few voice classes at BYU to learn how to sing solo parts a little better to be able to do such productions. I can sing parts well, but I don´t know how to craft my voice at all.

I feel kind of bad that I can´t claim that I worked the best the past several weeks. I´ve been getting way too lazy, especially with the doing the contacts I should. And I´m not just overreacting either. At times I have “animo” (it is the perfect spanish word to say that one has energy and vigor to work hard), but then it leaves after a few hours. A few times, I just gave up and it takes a long time and a lot of help once you´ve given yourself into that dank hole. It makes me feel even worse that I´ve been leading the rest of the district in the wrong direction too.

I started off today feeling that way too, but the zone activity really helped. I got there and just started pounding away on the piano. I absolutely love David Goldstein´s arrangements of the hymns. That might be one thing I might want for Christmas. I have Sacred Piano Preludes Volume one (so I´m sure that there is a volume two, and they are excellent to invite the spirit at a zone conference or at a baptism or anywhere) and “A Musical Companion,” the book I bought right before the mission. I love that book just to start pounding away with large chords and fast left hand movements to let off steam and be inspired. They are there in my skill range to be able to sight read or to practice up quickly to do as a solo.

While at zone conference, I was glad that Elder Rogers, one of the zone leaders, came to play ping pong with me and talk. He is a really special Elder with the ability to lift anyone up. He knows how to help make anyone feel good, make them feel worth something. And he works harder than nearly any other Elder too. He is a great example and helped me lift me a bit more out of that hole I had dug for myself. And it is always fun to play ping pong (it is a common sport in all of the churches here. I really think that our wards should adopt the same system for those that don´t want to play basketball as much). We also played a bit of Mafia, the common scout game. I enjoyed it today.

What has kept me up a bit is that we have hopes of having one or two baptisms this Saturday. First of all, we have Nora Mendez. We haven´t been able to teach her too much yet because we keep finding other people to teach in her house. So, she´s heard about the restoration and baptism a bunch of times. But, doesn´t know all of the commandments yet. So, I was thinking about setting the baptismal interview on friday. But, luckily, the thought came into my mind that I should have her read question 4 of the baptismal interview questions and she told us that she has a problem with it. That means that she will need to have an interview with the Mission President. He is booked this week because Elder Bednar is coming for meeting after meeting and to speak to all of us on Thursday. So, the President won´t have much time and if we had learned about it later on in the week, I don´t think it would have been possible. It isn´t certain with her, but I think it will be very possible.

Our other possibility is Patricia, the friend of the Mendez family. She had the parents permission for her to listen to us, but not to be baptized. It didn´t seem like the Mom was going to be very supportive. But, on Saturday, we found her in the house of the Mendez family. My companion said before we got there, “She´s in the firing hole. A house of pure love and testimony.” So, we started talking with her about what she thinks about Patricia coming to church. She was a little reluctant. So, we showed The Restoration, the 20 min. movie, and then started to explain that this will help Patricia a lot in her life, but she needs the support of her family, especially her mom to endure to the end. Nora then talked about how at first, she wasn´t going to let her kids go to church, that she felt the Mormons were trying to rob her kids and take them away, and all sorts of things. But, over time, she saw that we teach only good things, she wants them to go to church every Saturday and Sunday (yes, I continue teaching piano on Saturday, but it has been difficult because so many kids have started coming, wanting to learn, it is really hard to give them each a turn within the hour), and that she has made the decision to be baptized. We emphasized the fact that she needs to pray to know the answer. The next day when we went, we talked with the Mom and she said she prayed a lot the night before and she felt that this would be good for Patricia and the she would have her full support to follow this path. That was a great miracle and we´ll see if she´ll be able to be baptized with Nora on Saturday too.

I love you all and I have energy to help the stone cut without hands roll forth,
Elder Drake Ranquist