My Anthem

Dearest Family,

Como estamos? How are we? I hope everyone is great here. I continue to
just enjoy each day of the mission and love inviting others to come
unto Christ.

A few funny stories:
So on Halloween day it HAILED! A HUGE STORM! The first time we stayed
inside for a bit because it was literally dangerous. We booked it to
get home fast and Elder Bailey got hit by a hail! But he was fine.
Happy Halloween!

So I definitely had a Coalie moment with a members dog. We visited
their house and a dog jumped on me and I started talking in my high
pitched and WUSHHHH the pee flooded out of the dog and onto me.
Whatevs. Dogs love me!

Besides that, its been a pretty difficult week. We only taught three
lessons with investigators this week, one on Saturday night, the other
two just last night. The last two were miracles because we entered
church without progressing investigators and a couple came in and had
been invited by the sisters to church just an hour before and stayed
and LOVED CHURCH! The other investigator is the Elders Quorum
Presidents brother who was touched by his brothers example and has
accepted a baptismal date for November 29th. But lets rewind a bit:

So Saturday we started our fast and we were hurting. Five days without
investigators isnt easy for missionaries, especially leaders. But
Elder Bailey and I have spent so many great moments just saying
prayers of thanks. Each night we share our testimony and gratitude to
each other for our days. We never focus on the negative side of our
work, we just focus on being happy. And that is the key to life in
general. I say that a lot to each of you. But Saturday we came home at
4 to do some Progress Reports for the ward and had no where to go. So
I got on my knees and before I prayed, I chose a hymn to sing to
myself. Here is some of the text:

Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee--
Ever my anthem will be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
Loving thee, ever I pray,
Aid me thy will to obey.

Of all the anthems I could have, mine would be Nearer, dear Savior, to
thee. That's my goal in this life: to grow nearer and become more like
Jesus Christ. As I sat and prayed for direction, I felt a great
calming sensation, just as each of us always wants in life, and I
continued with the work. The next day we went to teach the couple that
we met in Sacrament meeting and we brought our ward mission leader and
his wife with us. We had a great lesson with this family. They were
impressed by the ward, we shared how the gospel blesses families, and
it was great. But as the lesson kept going, we didn't to the point of
our lesson: That God speaks through a prophet. That He still talks to
us as individuals, and that we are representatives of Jesus Christs
church. I prayed for a moment to share this message and I received it.
The husband was astounded that two 20 year olds were teaching him and
I stopped him there and said the following.

¨Sir, I may only be a 20 year old. I may not speak Spanish perfectly.
I definitely don't have a college education, nor a lot of life
experience. But what I do know is something I treasure greatly.¨ And
that's how I started the story of Joseph Smith. And that is how the
Spirit testified to their hearts that the message was true. It was at
that moment that I grew to know my Savior more than I had been able to
in previous weeks and months. Up until that point I had been ashamed of
the baptismal invitation because I didn't want to offend people. But
with that family, something changed in me. After having a dry spell of
lessons, I realized that baptism is the door to happiness. The door to
change. The door to Christ. And if I don't invite a family to be
baptized, I am not bringing them to Christ. We went from that lesson
to our last lesson of the night and we taught this new investigator,
Ismael, about the Book of Mormon. I testified to Him that this book
had brought me closer to Christ and than any other book I had read.
And from there, I invited him to come unto Christ through baptism. My
companion and I set the baptismal date for the 29th of November.

The changes that have happened in me haven't happened just because I
have a name tag on. There have been many others just like who haven't
been changed one bit by this name tag. The changes have happened in me
because I have come to trust in my Savior and Redeemer a whole lot
more than I used to. I pray to my Father in Heaven each day and find
the Savior in the book of Mormon each morning. I work so hard to
understand my Saviors will and do my best to help those in need. As we
enter the time of thanks and the time of giving, it is my hope that we
may also remember the time of loving. It is through Christlike love
and service that we continue to change and become better people. And
these changes are a little bit each day, till we look back and see
what Christ has made of us.

I love you all! :)
Till next week
Elder Risueño