Dear Mom,

I was hoping they were free! Haha! I was getting pretty tired of those Rockports. I'm going to try and walk better and hopefully these pair of shoes will last longer! Thank you so much mom! Those shoes feel a lot better. I still feel a little ankle pain when I step on something wrong, but I do feel it a lot less with good shoes. That's cool that they had my information on what I bought. Hopefully I won't have to replace any more missionary shoes. However, I have had a problem with running shoes for a while. Remember those puma shoes I came out with on my mission. Well, last fall they became pretty worn. Well, I found some other shoes in the apartment that some other missionary had left a while ago. So I've been using those shoes I found for a while, and I threw away those pumas a while back. I'm getting tired of these shoes, because they just aren't very good quality. I'm going to start looking for new running/athletic shoes soon. I might be able to buy some today. Just so you know that I'll be using some personal money pretty soon. Thanks for all the other goodies in the package too!

We'll definitely have to visit here someday. I just don't think that it would be a very good vacation for the two little girls. I don't think that they would enjoy it.

Just let me know as soon as you can about my credit card. I'll remember to run it as credit.

Update on Antonio, he left the hospital yesterday. Aparently the doctors told him to take it easy and he can't work for a month, at least. Sad, but he wasn't enjoying the hospital at all. So I'm sure he's glad to be home.

 We've been visiting with a lot more very less-active families this past week. We found a less-active member that hasn't been to church for many years. He said something like 10 years, so I don't know. His name is Giovanny. He's from Ecuador. He's pretty receptive to us. I think I talked a little about him last week. We saw him again on Saturday. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He liked it. He said that he for sure was going to come to church the next day. He never showed up. Sometimes, I just don't know how to get people to come to church.

On Tuesday, we saw two more less-active families. One of them is the Galicia family. Sister Galicia has a very strong testimony. She comes to church every once in a while, but she mainly goes to the ward down in Jersey City. Something happened to her and brother Galicia a few years back, and now they don't want anything to do with the members here in Union City. I don't really know what's going on with them, but she asked us to tell the Bishop that she doesn't want any member from Union City to even try to visit her. Kind of weird, but when I asked her if we can still come by, she said, "of course, we really want you two to come by." Interesting situation. I have no idea what to do with them. They've been to the temple and everything. Brother Galicia has a testimony too, but he hasn't acted upon it for the past couple years. He told us that it's been years since he's even prayed. When Elder Koellicker was here a couple weeks back, he promised us that if we read the Book of Mormon for at least 30 minutes every day, we will never go less-active. I'm taking that promise! Becoming less-active is very sad. I always feel bad for those members we meet that have gone less-active. They lose so many blessings and comfort from the Holy Ghost.

We also met with a very less-active member on Wednesday named Mario. I honestly think that he never really even had a testimony in the first place. It doesn't really feel like he has lost anything. He enjoys it when we come over. We started showing him those Mormon Messages on LDS.org in Spanish. He really likes those. We keep inviting him to church, but he has work at 11. But he could still make it to 30 minutes of Sacrament Meeting. He takes very small baby steps. Right now, we're just trying to get him praying and watching more Mormon Messages on his own. He's progressing, but very, very slowly. He's a nice guy and fun to work with.

On Sunday, we finally had the baptism of Brian Montes. We've been working with him for about two months. Brian is 15 years old. He's been a pretty good investigator. He was always reading. He's really good at doing his homework, so naturally he starting reading the Book of Mormon and kept reading it. He said that he believes that the Book of Mormon is true and he wanted to be baptized. It was a great baptism. We had it right after church. All the missionaries in Union City (six of us) sang Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy in Spanish with two of the missionaries playing guitar. It all went pretty well!

After the baptism, we drove two other elders back to their apartment, because they live a little further away. After we dropped them off, we drove by a small little Islam booth by the side of the road. My companion and I wanted to get a Qu-ran, but I won't ever buy one. They had a banner that said 'free books'. So we stopped by and I got out to quickly go see if I could get a free Qu'ran. They were pretty nice! They shared with me a little bit about their beliefs. They said that they believe in one God; that Adam and Eve were the first people on earth; that God has sent prophets or messengers to tell us God's will; and that Jesus Christ was a good person who stood for righteousness; and that this earth is just a temporal state. They didn't even budge the foundation of my testimony of the Church. They didn't speak any Spanish, so they asked me what my tag was. I told them that I'm a Spanish missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then I told them that we believe that God has sent a prophet to us in these days to continue to lead us and guide us. It was a pretty interesting encounter. Men don't touch women in their culture. But hey, I got a free Qu-ran to read after my mission! I felt bad afterward because I didn't invite them to read the Book of Mormon. FAIL! I'll know better next time. You live, you learn. Now I know better when I meet another Muslim; I'm going to invite them to read the Book of Mormon!

So that's about it for this week! Remember that next week is transfers. It's very likely that I'll be transferred from Union City. SAD! I'll let you know for sure next week, and the following week I'll tell you where I've been transferred to if I end up being transferred.

Love you lots mom!

 1.  (question from Kelsie)  How many companions have you had so far, not including the MTC?  Make sure you keep the numbers to the cute ones for Kelsie.

I've had six companions on my mission so far. Haha! I actually had a missionary from California ask if he could write to Kelsie. His name is Elder House. He's black.

2.  (question from Julia) How many baptisms have you been a part of?

I've been part of seven baptisms now.

3.  (question from Kelsie..again)  What is your response to people when they ask "how do you know the church is true?"

 It really depends on the situation. Usually I'll tell them that I just know. My Heavenly Father has helped me understand and I've felt the Holy Ghost tell me that it's true.


-Justin