Another Great Week in the Vineyard

Dear All,

This has been a really great week. First of all, Alonzo was confirmed and ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. It was pretty cool. We've also found some great investigator families.

Yesterday we found a family, the Mayen Smith family. Yes, you did read that right. Smith. It's the Mom's last name, and what's more, she has absolutely no ancestors in the USA or the UK, so who knows how she got that name! But they're really cool. They alreay want to come to church. They've come a couple of times with other Elders about a year ago, but they weren't baptized. We don't know why the missionaries stopped visiting them, because they're pretty awesome. I'm really excited to be able to know them and to be able to bring them into the Gospel. They're even looking for a church to go to right now, so the Lord let us come to them in the right time.

I also got to play the piano in a house yesterday! We went to visit a less-active family whose daughter is 11 and hasn't been baptized. The Dad is learning to play piano, and they have a little piano keyboard in their living room. I played them a couple of hymns and it was really fun. It's been more than a year since I've played a piano outside of a church building.
Our district is rather successful this month. The most successful district gets the prize of having a district meeting in the mission home with President, and with the new missionaries who are going to come into the mission the following day. We're in the battle with by previous district, Sonora, and the Office (the secretaries and assistants) to be able to win the prize. Prospects are good that we may win the prize, but that's not why we're here. It would be really fun, but we're not here for fun, we're here on the Lord's errand.

Yesterday was a really fun p-day as well. Since I discovered that my current jacket isn't waterproof, I bought another one at Megapaca, which is basically Guatemalan D.I. or Goodwill. It's black, and it fits me pretty well and is very classy, and most importantly, waterproof!! I also bought a couple of church DVDs there that actually have D.I. tags on them: "On the Lord's Errand" (Thomas S. Monson's Biography), which I can use in my teaching, and "Mr. Krueger's Christmas," which I can't, but I can watch when I get home! Overall, I spent about $9 on the jacket and the 2 DVDs, and I'm very happy with my purchase. Especially with the jacket.

Also, we had some visitors in our district meeting: Elder Israelsen and Elder Trejo, the assistants to the president. They're pretty cool, and Elder Israelsen was actually in my area almost a year ago, so he knows a lot of the members and we're still working with a lot of his converts. It wasn't too eventful, but it was really good. Now, I'll be going on divisions again, this time in La Hermosa with Elder Silva, and Elder Finau Ngalu will be with my companion in my area.
Well, that's just about all for now. Keep the faith, and keep the commandments. As says the hymn, "In this there is safety and peace."

I love you all. Have a fantastic week, as will I.

Sincerely,
Elder Banks