Howdy,

Well, I`m back in La Boca!  I`m feeling a lot better and ready to
work!  I love the mission because you can get pumped up like all the
time because there are always new circumstances, people, areas,
companions, etc.  I`ve already had some great experiences this week,
here`s one that happened yesterday.  I`ll just copy it from my letter
I sent to my mission president:




Dear President,

I feel so blessed to have recovered quickly from my surgery.  I`m sure
that all the prayers offered in my behalf were the main reason that I
healed so quickly.  I hope to be at full force before long!

My first few days back in La Boca have been a success!  The highlight
so far has been a family home evening we had with a great family in
the ward.  We arrived at their home, got to know them, and then
started off talking about Jesus Christ.  Afterward, we shared a
scripture about how we come to christ (Doctrine of Christ).  Then, we
showed the last scene in The Testaments.  After the movie, the love of
Jesus Christ felt in that room was almost tangible.  It was hard not
to cry.  Then, we let the family take two minutes to write down how
they felt.  We had the family close their eyes and imagine a nonmember
friend.  For the first time, this friend prays and receives and answer
from God.  Then, he reads the Book of Mormon and goes to church.
After, this friend starts learning from the missionaries.  Finally,
the members imagined and pictured in their minds that this friend is
dressed in white and descends into the waters of baptism.  They are
able to witness their friend get baptized and feel Christ`s love in
the moment of their friend`s baptism (the same feelings we were
feeling in the FHE as we described the scene).  As we asked how the
baptisms of their friends went in their minds, the members were so
emotional they could hardly describe how they felt.

  Then came the commitment.  The members wrote down who they saw in
their minds and what they were going to do that week to share the
gospel with them.  The crazy thing is that there were no doubts, not
even hesitations, on who they were going to share with and what they
were going to do.  It just flowed naturally.  We are going to verify
in one week their invitations.

Cool huh?  I love getting the members excited, its the best way to go.

So i actually have 3 companions with me right now.  Elder Tapia, Elder
Cranford, and Elder Palma.  I`m not exactly sure if we`re going to
stay this way for long (probably not), but three of the four can`t
work 100 percent so we kind of tag team throughout the day.

OK, this doesn`t really have anything to do with the missionary work,
but yesterday I ate an asado that changed my life.  We ate with the
ward mission leader Sergio and he cooked a slice of meat "barbaro". 

It was heaven on earth!

Well, I gotta get going.  Have a great week.

Chaocito,

Elder Hales