An Amazing Day!!!

 Two More Potential Investigators

This past week two different families asked if we are going to have a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cahabon.  Of course, we want to say "yes," but it is not our decision.  When we met with the Coban Mission President he said that we had to have five men who are baptized, or ready for baptism, before they can submit a request to the Area Presidency to have missionaries in Cahabon.

Well, today we moved two steps closer.  We are not approved to have Church meetings in our home (except for special permission), but we can have gatherings -- like a family home evening.  Today we had a gathering, with 6 people.  

We had one investigator that a missionary is communicating with him on the internet, through his smart phone.  Yesterday we received a call from the mission office, and they asked if we could go to the Park and give a young man a Book of Mormon.  We said we could be there in 10 minutes.  They sent us a picture of the young man, so we would recognize him, and they sent a picture of me to him.  I had to walk through the park a couple times (I should be pretty obvious -- an old white woman with white hair), but he finally came up to me and said Book of Mormon.  We brought both a Spanish and Kekchi Book of Mormon, to see which one he wanted.  He had a friend with him that said he would like the Kekchi book, so we gave them the books.  We asked if they would like to come to our home the next day, at 11am.  Otoniel said, where is it?  He seemed interested, so we said we could take him there, and bring him back.  So, he and his friend jumped in the back of our pickup and we took them to our home, so he would know where we live.  He said he would come the next day -- which he did.  But, this is the amazing part -- he had to ride his motorcycle 1 1/2 hours to get home yesterday, and then another 1 1/2 hours today to come to our house.  His other friend was not able to come because he lived another hour further, and wasn't able to come today (maybe another day).  

The other investigator is Fernando.  He is the son of Ricardo Lopez, who was a Branch President about 40 years ago.  Ricardo was either not born, or very little, at the time the Branch was closed, by the Church in Cahabon.  So, he had not had any opportunity to be taught by the missionaries.  Bob asked if he would be interested in visiting with the missionaries, and he said he would.

In November of last year (2020) Bob came with Ramel Fraatz to introduce the water filters to the people in Cahabon.  They just happened to be in Coban at the time of the Coban Temple Groundbreaking.  But, because of the Covid restrictions, they had to stand outside the fence.  Bob found the Church video of the groundbreaking meeting, and wanted to show that to our visitors today.  We brought our small projector with us, so we were able to project the image on our white wall.  It was 38 minutes long -- but it was all in either Spanish or Kekchi, so we didn't need to worry about translating.  We are very limited in our ability to share the gospel because of our language limitations.

The video was perfect -- especially comments by a teenage girl.  Bob did a nice job of following up the video by talking with Otoniel and Fernando, with the help of our interpreter (Gady Juarez).  He asked Fernando if he would like to visit with the missionaries.  He said that he would -- that he had seen his father's books in their home, and wanted to learn more.  I asked if he had a Book of Mormon, and he said he didn't, so we gave him a Book of Mormon.

So, 6 people attended our gathering:  (1) Ricardo Lopez, former Branch President, (2) Fernando, his son about 35 years old, (3) Otoniel Morales Caal, who we delivered a Book of Mormon to yesterday, (4) Gady Juarez, our interpreter, (5) Bob, and (6) I.  

It was just a simple gathering, but it could help a LOT towards our goal of 5 men baptized or ready to be baptized.

The Mission Assistants (who are working with Otoniel) said today that, "there are many people who are interested in Cahabon" -- so, keep praying!!!

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Please check out our Family to Family Corn Project on welcomehand.org.  For $25 you can make a big difference by providing a bag of fertilizer to help a peasant farmer increase his corn production.  In addition to providing more corn to sell, it will help him provide food for his family (corn) and move towards sustainability.  It's a very small amount, but it can make a HUGE difference to a family in the rural Cahabon District of Guatemala.