Two letters...

I am sorry I was on vacation and didn't get to my e-mails until yesterday! Here are Erick's last two letters...Enjoy! My family had a chance to talk to hin for Mother's Day and he is loving Georgia. He plans to go back after his mission. He is such a sweet guy. He is truly in the right place, at the right time and doing the right things. It is an honor to call him my little brother.

May 4th, 2009:

this past week we taught 34 lessons again. Good week. we had a great sunday and new people have been added to our teaching pool who really have alot of potential. at the moment we have three investigators with baptismal dates that we are preparing. one on may 23rd and the other two on july 11th.
today i feel really tired. I don't know what it is. I feel so far behind on writing even in my journal. I feel like we have been to busy to relax at all. It can be frustrating. But i am happy to have so much work.
The new transfer has started and yesterday i hit my official 5 month marker. Crazy huh? I feel like time is moving pretty fast. So i have loved studying my scriptures so much. I really have been grateful for the oppurtunity to do so. Well, I guess i will share a story today cause i dont know what to write. my mind can think straight or focus. all i want to do is sleep and go play sports and it is raining outside! 3D ( lame!
So this past sunday we had a member bring thier brother with them to church. His name is leo, He was great to meet and right after sacrament meeting we had the oppurtunity to teach him the restoration. We came to find out that he had been taught by the missionaries two years ago and that he fell away because of pressure from friends and family. This time he says he doesn't care and that he knows the message is true. We asked him to prepare for baptism on the 23rd of this month and he acceptted the commitment. He is excited to learn more and has told us we can come visit him two times a week to help prepare him. We are grateful the lord has blessed us with those who are ready. We want to help him so he can stay strong this time! it helps that his sister and brother and law are members now! it rocks.
Yeah so that is my story for this week. Hope you liked it. I want to say thank you to everyone who has written me. especially my family! those last letters were great! it was nice getting my first letter from bianca too! made me feel very loved and made my night. thank you everyone! I am praying for all of you! i am sorry this week i am writing a short email but i am struggling staying focused and i am to anxious to get out and play. One day a week is not enough for me! sometimes i feel so stressed because i'm not as active as i would like to be. anyways... love you all.
Elder Delgado

May 11th, 2009:

Hello Everyone!
Life is great here in Georgia. Enjoying it greatly. It has been a real blessing to serve the lord and to see the change in behavior and attitude in the persons i have had the change to teach. Yesterday, It was wonderful to speak to Mom and Dad, how i have missed their voices. It was wonderful to speak with everyone else who was present and I thank you for the constant support I have while here on the mission.
We had the oppurtunity yesterday to celebrate mothers day with the Smith family. They are wonderful and loving. Yesterday Elder Cowley and I also had the oppurtunity to teach primary. Haha. It was a total blast! we played jeopardy about Jesus Christ's baptism with them! It really made miss being a kid. I wish I was that worry free. haha.
I also had the oppurtunity to confer the priesthood for the first time yesterday. I ordained Jose Antonio Magallon to the Aaronic priesthood and to the office of a priest. It was very nice and very unexpected. I guess he had asked for me to do it specifically. I felt very honored to give someone else the authority of the priesthood.
As for the rest of the week, It has been kind of crazy. We have two baptismal dates for this month. One is named Leo and the other Jorge. they are both wonderful people and are ready for baptism. Leo is going along great and just waiting for the day. Jorge on the other hand has had some problems. Yesterday we found out that he has opposition from his family and that he has been kicked out of his home. We dont know where he is at now and we plan on tracking him down tonight. Please pray for him and that the lord will bless him to be safe. He is an elderly man and has diabetes... He is unable to work because of his conditions and we don't know how he could support himself.
Gina and Tino didn't come to church this week. Gina is in the process of a divorce so she can marry Tino and then they can be baptized. Unfortunately they got sick for the past week and a half. We have been unable to visit with them. Yesterday they did not come to church and when we spoke with Gina she said that she was very upset with Tino and never wanted to marry him. Ugh. DRAMA! but whatever, we are going to go and see them tonight if we can. Pray that all goes well. They are wonderful people just need to get married. haha. Francisco and Guadalupe, so this is quite the story. i have to type quick. 5 mins. ok, francisco this week was thrown in jail. yeah... sucks. guadalupe in order to bail him out had to pay over 2,000 dollars. Which is terrible! This saturday he was bailed out, we just so happened to be at there door when they pulled up. funny how that works out huh? well... the good news about all this is that we were there for him and his family throughout the whole week. They both recognized that and were very appreciative. we spent some time with them and it was truly a lesson for them. Sometimes the lord has to humble people so they will be more receptive. We pray they will progress more rapidly now and they have re committed to listening with full intent to learn and grow. we invited them to church and unfortunately they didnt come. dont know why. but we are praying for their well being. if you all could as well that would be awesome.
Well it looks like i have got to jet. I love the mission. we came close this week to hitting fourty lessons, only five off. we will get there hopefully this week.
I love you all!
Elder Erick Delgado