There Are No Benchwarmer Callings

My dearest family!!

Well things are going great here in Tambo Grande!

We are still working on the T parents for the 12th and they are starting to attend consistently and they are even inviting other family members to come too, like their daughter in law (their son lives in Lima, but she lives about 20-30 minutes outside of Tambo Grande) and so that has been great! Tonight we have a family home evening with them and we are planning on checking up about how they are feeling about baptism and everything along with inviting their 2 daughters to be baptized the same day. Their daughters are super awesome and just as prepared as L and F, they just weren't there when we invited the parents to be baptized. But they are all really growing in enthusiasm to learn and progress, and they have told all their family that they are receiving the lessons! So it is all pretty super there!

H and J are great. They work outside of Tambo Grande and so sometimes they get stuck out there due to the fact that there is very little transport to out where they are. But they are doing well, they need to get back to the habit of attending church though... H is just about finished reading the Book of Mormon so he is on fire. We need to check on their marriage situation though, hopefully all is going well. In our appointment Tuesday I think we will see how all of that is going.

We are working hard! This week we have ran into a good deal of new people, less actives, new investigators, and we are learning that we need to focus on finding the chosen ones. There are some people so ready to change their lives, and that is what our purpose is, allow them to be born again in Christ. If they are just accepting the visits because it is a beautiful message about God, they don't understand the purpose. Faith is a principle of action and we need to change habits and actions of our lives to more fully follow Jesus Christ.

This next week I think we will be teaching a lot of active members too. I think that is how we are going to get church attendance back up, we need to renew their faith and help them understand what it truly means to be a member of this church. There are no benchwarmer callings. I think with this we will find some better results. Sadly church attendance still hasn't gotten up to what I would like. So what do we gotta do? Work harder and work smarter. So here we go! :) President Rowley has been helping me out with pointers on how we can do it.

In this mission, our zone now has 40 with a baptismal date! Like 2 months before, I think there were maybe 5. But we are now working with God given goals and we must complete them with diligence and obedience. Tambo Grande needs baptisms to animate the ward. There hasn't been a baptism since January, but if all works out we will have 6 this new month of July. Pray hard for us! We will do the same. And that is how we can make it come to pass!

Well, I love you all! Keep being awesome! The Book of Mormon is true, the Atonement is real, Jesus is the Christ, and God is our Loving Heavenly Father. Pray daily. Share the gospel in every chance possible. Always seek to hear and follow the Holy Ghost's direction. And I will do my best to do the same. :)

Con amor y felicidad,

Elder Collin Russell