A lady we teach, after learning about the Celestial Kingdom, said, "I really like going to church because it makes me feel like I'm in the Celestial Kingdom with Heavenly Father." That was one of the sweetest things I've heard since coming on my mission.

Alright so tons of fun stuff happened this week and I am really excited to actually email about it! 

Just this river that we have to cross every now and then....

So we have been teaching the Docot family (this is actually the parents of the first Docot family who texted us and said they don't want us to teach them anymore) and they were really nice and really progressing and such, but one day we showed up and the father wasn't there and momma had kind of a black eye. We asked them how they were doing and apparently the dad had gotten drunk on Monday night and threw some fists at mom and then wrecked the house and stormed off and didn't tell them where he was going. That happened on Monday, and as far as we can tell, he hasn't come back, so we really don't know what to do there.

So the next day, which was Wednesday, we went to the original Docot family (who is the son of the Docot family mentioned above) to ask them why they didn't want us to visit them anymore. Well we walked up to their house and guess who the first person we see is? Yep, that's right, the dad who stormed out on his family on Monday night. Turns out he went to live with his son for a while. Anyways we got there and things just went really weird. The lady who texted us saying that she didn't want to listen anymore got really mad at us for coming back, but then her husband started yelling at her for getting mad at us because he actually really likes us, and then they got into an argument, and on and on and on. So yeah, things are complicated with the Docot family.  Still trying our best with them. 

picture of chariza cerilo's baptism last week 

But last Saturday we finally had a baptism of one of our investigators named Chariza Cerilo. She's only 19 but she has a child who is three years old (there's many young mothers like that here) so life is pretty rough for her. But she is married and lives with her husband’s family and they are all really strong members so she will be able to stay strong in the church with their influence

This last week we worked with our Branch Mission Leader, Brother Aries Leonor, to see what we need to improve in our area. He talked with us for a whole two hours giving us awesome advice on how we can improve and how we can do better in our area. Elder Caballes and I are VERY excited to start implementing his advice. 

Sunday we had 7 of our investigators come to church and they all love it there. One of the ladies that we teach, after learning about the Celestial Kingdom, told us, "I really like going to church because it makes me feel like I'm in the Celestial Kingdom with Heavenly Father." That was actually one of the sweetest things I've heard since coming on my mission. We have a lot of baptismal dates lined up with more to come hopefully! Overall, life is just great here. We are working hard and taking on almost more than we can handle, but we are getting better at it every day! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Austin Cook

Don't ask me why but these people think it's a fantastic 

idea to just nail baby dolls to the front of their house. 

I guess it just gives it a homey look

Elder Hoecherl in the background