Christopher's Letter Home

Dear Mom, Dad, and Lizzy,

What a crazy birthday week. Yes, I did get a cake. I had an awesome birthday party. From what I hear, it was quite the party. We were only at it for an hour, but the rest of the guests were there until 9:30 pm. We had a tres leches cake. After blowing out the candles everyone was saying “mordida, mordida.” (a bite, a bite). As is tradition, I bit the corner of the cake. I was surprised when our recent convert, Alicia Hernandez, pushed my face into the cake. It took a good 10 minutes to get the blue frosting out of my nose. The cake was very good, and the company was even better.

I haven’t told you much about our coolest new investigator. Eugenia Rojas is the type of investigator missionaries dream of teaching. I am lucky; Dina was the first golden investigator. Luckily, we have two more currently in out teaching pool. Eugenia is one and Jose Luis is the other. During the last two weeks we have learned a lot about Eugenia. She liked conference a lot and commented on Elder Holland’s talk. She even made reference to it the next week at church. After yesterday’s meetings, we had a lesson with her. As we talked, we learned why she is so methodical in her study of the church. She was a reporter in Mexico for twelve years. She covered everything from sports to politics to business. ASt her height, she was one of the best in Guanojuato, but the economy and political shifts in Mexico eventually caught her. As radio and newspaper reporting was replaced by internet news outlets, her coworkers lost their jobs. The first to go was her driver, and then her photographer. As she watched them leave, she was forced to learn photography to make up for the reduction. As this happened, she kept feeling as if God wanted her to come to the United States. She did so. Within six months, we knocked on her door.

During yesterdays lesson, she explained how we had answered questions she thought couldn’t be answered. We showed her a church established by Jesus Christ. She told us that she had never felt the spirit in such a way. She understood that because God told her the Book of Mormon was true, everything else established through the restoration really did happen. When we invited her to be baptized again, her answer wasn’t no, but rather “Give me a chance to ask God how to tell my family. This is something I must do; God will need to help me.” We were blown away by this answer. In 14 days, Eugenia Rojas gained a testimony of the restored church of Jesus Christ. She heard the testimonies of two 21 year old young men, apostles, a prophet of God, and the Holy Ghost. She now knows that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, that Joseph Smith restored the Christ’s Church, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that he Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on this planet. I, too, know this to be true.

Love,

Elder Badger