The Field is White...: He is such a wise 21-year old. We are so proud of him!

Hey Fam! How is everyone? This week has been great. We've all been preparing for the visit of President Tenorio who came for a mission tour. Tomorrow he'll be doing a zone conference with our zone at our chapel, and after he's coming to check out the office and do some interviews. He's going to interview the assistants and one other missionary. I've heard from the other zones he's already visited that the conferences have been pretty awesome, so I'm excited.

So Sunday after church was the baptismal service for Hortencia, Hugo, and Andrea. It was awesome. There were tons of people at the baptismal service. The talks were really good, and the three of them were just happy and excited. It was awesome to see their faces coming out of the font. I got to baptize Hugo and Andrea, and Elder Olson baptized Hortencia. The baptism of Joselin (the older daughter) is programmed for this Saturday, and will be Elder Olson's last baptism. He goes home on Monday. His last week is turning out to be a pretty great one.

The whole challenge with Axel's birthday being on Sunday didn't affect the baptism at all. We went by their house Saturday night to help Hortencia prepare all the food for the next day, and everyone gave an extra effort to make sure the birthday party was ready so they could come to church and not feel rushed at their baptism. The only thing missing was a cake, so on Saturday night we called up the Sister that had made me a cake for my birthday and asked if we could buy an urgent cake from her. She had it all ready on time. We took the cake over to the party in the afternoon and everybody loved it. We had the opportunity to talk with the dad (also named Hugo) for a little while there at the birthday party. He's still super nice and way fun to be around, but he was also drinking. He was excited to see us though which is a good sign. Hortencia said she's been sneaking gospel talk into their daily conversations every time she gets a chance to see if she can get him to come to church or something. It's been so fun getting to know that family. They're great.

Raymundo's kids have been hard to get a hold of. It's kind of a tough situation with them, because Raymundo is separated from his wife right now, and she's of a different faith. I don't think she normally has anything against the church, I think she's just nervous that if their kids get involved a lot with the church they might feel closer to their dad and distanced from their mom. That's totally understandable, but it kind of stinks because those kids are pretty awesome. The oldest is about eighteen, and the other two are teenagers.

About a week ago we got a call from Elder Cedillo, who was staying here at the offices until he was released for medical reasons. He passed us a referral for us to visit his friend's boyfriend (the girlfriend is also a member of the church.) His name is David. He's from a pretty wealthy family. He's twenty three years old, and he's studying to be a chef. He's pretty good. He's got a job at a nice restaurant right now, but he's been thinking about switching to a different place. Anyway, he came to church on Sunday. He's read about half way through 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and he's looking awesome. He really understands his relationship with Heavenly Father, and it's awesome when he prays, because he's really just talking with his Father. He's 100% determined to receive his own personal witness and testimony of the truth. His mom use to have a pretty good job, I think that's where the money comes from, but she recently suffered from an accident and is no longer able to work. She's very friendly. It's been cool to see how mature David is while he goes through the trials in his family and stays so positive. He's going to do great things with his life.

This week I listened to a talk called "The Key to Learning," given by John H. Vandenberg in 1972. It talks a lot about the importance of reading. There's a part in that talk that I really liked that helped me understand agency, obedience, things like that. He says (I'm not quoting, just paraphrasing) that somewhere in the future there's a man (or woman.) That person is you at your fullest potential. He's watching you, and hoping that the decisions you make will allow the things he's accomplished to become reality. If we make poor decisions, it thwarts everything he's done, and all those accomplishments cease to exist. When we make decisions of what to do with our time, we should think "Is what I'm doing right now giving the future me the tools and opportunities he needs? Or are the things I'm choosing robbing him of what he is, and keeping the future me from being what he can be?" I thought that was pretty awesome. When we have a choice between reading the scriptures or watching TV, it's good to think about how it affects the future us. Which would provide him with more wisdom to be able to make good choices? When we're interacting with others, and we could either make another sarcastic, careless comment, or maybe instead give a compliment or express gratitude, it's another choice that can make a big difference. Which choice will provide the future me with more integrity, and a greater capability to befriend and love others? How could it influence the "future me" of the person we're about to either compliment or criticize? Anyway, I don't know if that makes sense. I just thought that was a good way of looking at things.

That's pretty much all that's been going on this week.

Dig- Sounds like that indoor soccer scrimmage was pretty crazy. I had a blast at indoor soccer. It's a great sport. Love ya, have a great week!

Dad- Thanks for the update on the U. That's good that they had a sweet season. That cabin family trip planning sounds like a great idea. You know I would actually love to set up some Christmas lights right now. Even in that kind of weather. My area is a pretty wealthy ward so there's some houses here that have some sweet lights and decorations and stuff. My companion (Elder Zobell) frequently makes comments about Chevy Chase when we see houses that are really decked out. haha. Love ya, have a great week!

Den- That's too bad about the U kicker huh. We need King Louis again! He was the best! Hope you feel better! Love ya, have a great week!

Shash- Sounds like that activity with the thanksgiving rolls was pretty awesome! You're reading the BFG huh? That's a great book. You'll have to let me know if you like it. Love ya, have a great week!

Mom- That's so awesome about the Hardings! That's going to be so cool! What a great month for their family. Awesome. That talk "How Lucky Can You Be!" was given the 13 of October 1964. I found it on this podcast called "Classic Speeches" that we have here on the office computers. It's a free podcast I guess. I don't really know how that works but you can probably download it for free on iTunes. It's a selection of talks by General Authorities from 1960 to 1974. They're pretty awesome talks. With the picture sending dilemma, I'm pretty sure we should have a program on the computer that can shrink the size of the picture so you can send alot of them. I usually just use Microsoft Picture Manager. By the way, I attached the picture of the baptism for the Salas Ríos family, and a picture with Hugo jr. and us, and Hugo sr. and us. Anyway, thanks for everything mom. Love ya, have a great week!

Love you all!
Elder Aguilar