Elder Tucker In Mexico: Una Semana Bien Rara....

Hola Familia!

Another good week as a missionary here in Portland! I didn't get to baptize Damian Lillard this transfer like I was hoping, but some crazy things happened this week.

Early in the week, for the first time in my mission, Elder Valentine and I met with an openly-gay, middle-aged man named Johnathan at this restaurant called Cruisers. He told us about himself and how despite everything, he accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior. This was pretty cool for me to hear. So we talked to him about how much love the Church and especially God has for all of His children. He had some questions for us about the Church's stance. We didn't have much time to met with him that night, but maybe he'll be open to hear more another time.

Later, we had a FaceTime lesson with a member who had just moved into our ward, Jesse. Jesse had just recently converted to the Church when his Elders quorum President told him that he needed to have a vision confirming the truth of the Book of Mormon before he was to receive the priesthood. This caused him to be really confused and grow a little inactive. Well, after telling him that what his Elders quorum President said was crazy, Elder Valentine and I felt impressed to draw up the Plan of Salvation focusing on the role that the Priesthood has in all of it. Very powerful. You could tell he was receiving a lot of the answers to his questions. Then on Sunday, after Sacrament Meeting, we met up again with Jesse in the Bishop's office and helped confer the Aaronic Priesthood upon him! Hopefully, he'll participate in the blessing or passing of the sacrament next Sunday. I'm so excited for him.

Thursday, I got flown down solo to Las Vegas to meet with the Mexican Consulate and finish the process of obtaining my visa. It hadn't really hit me until I walked out of the consulate building, that I was all alone as a missionary in the middle of Las Vegas. I didn't have a phone so I walked to the closest place I could find with free WiFi which ended up being an outdoor mall called Las Vegas Premium outlets. I had some lunch at Shake Shack and then borrowed the mall customer service place's phone to call my zone leaders in Portland. They got the number of the local Elders in the area I was in for me and I called them and told them the story and they were so confused like "I've never been in a situation like this before. We're gonna have to call the APs and the mission President and ask". Hahaha. But they ended up driving over to come get me. Elder Roberts from Idaho and Elder Roberts from Vancouver, Washington!! Crazy! They took me with them immediately to an appointment with a woman named Cheryl who had just been baptized on Saturday. We went over the Restoration with her. Then, the elders took me to the nearest chapel where I met the President of the Las Vegas West Mission, President Walker, and his wife. They took me to the mission home and I went on a walk around the neighborhood with President Walker. He was very nice to talk to. Then they fed me some pizza for dinner and paid for an Uber to get back to the airport. Elder Broadbent and Elder Valentine picked me back up in Portland at 10:15 PM that night. Hahaha crazy day.

Sunday, Elder Valentine, Brother Wells, and I all spoke at church. I was assigned to speak about Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk in the April 2016 general conference called See Yourself in the Temple. Very important principles in there. James, our investigator, AND Sister Bacso, less-active (returning), attended church which was the best. Sister Bacso got to go to the temple prep class and says she can't wait to come back next week.

Another miracle that happened this week was with Sister Fuapau, the less active member with four sons that we visited last week. It was her birthday this week, so we weren't able to go over on Tuesday, but our ward mission leader dropped off some cupcakes for her saying they were from the missionaries of the ward. Then on Sunday, we get a text from her saying she's trying to get back together with her husband and that they ALL want to be taking the missionary lessons as a family!!! Wow. Pray for the Fuapau family because this would be an unbelievable blessing if it worked out!

Regarding my return to México, President McAteer told me that he still hasn't heard anything, so it's possible that I'll be staying in the Portland a little longer than I thought. But I don't know, I guess we'll see. I'm praying that I can return to Cuernavaca as soon as possible.

Anyway, have a good week! I love you all.

Love,

Elder Tucker