Halloween

Hey everyone!

I hope all of you had a great Halloween. Mine was a little....

different. But it was a great time nonetheless! But I'll get to that

in a little bit. There were a lot of great miracles that happened and

we just continue to learn and grow by the spirit!

It was a pretty great Tuesday for us! We saw Brother Madueke before he

took a trip with his Mom to Nigeria for a couple weeks. We talked

about him getting a calling and he said he was all for it! It is so

great because all he wants to do is help the youth in the area and I'm

just thinking "Oh my gosh, he could be a perfect Sunday school

teacher"! So I can't wait to see what happens because I think that is

what will get him completely active again. We also met a man named

Marcello who was locked out of his house. It was perfect timing

because we had 30 minutes before we needed to be at a lesson so we

went to do some finding. He was such a kind guy, he's from Brazil and

just moved here two weeks ago! He's been studying English for 8 years

before he came and he was very interested in meeting with us! What a

tender mercy by the Lord.

Wednesday we met with a young boy named Mateus who just turned 8 this

past week. It's pretty great! We met him two weeks ago and he asked

what we were doing, so we explained we were missionaries. He was

pretty curious what we were all about, so we told him we would stop by

sometime and give him a Finding Faith in Christ dvd. So we did and his

mom only speaks Portuguese but is so nice. We had a great lesson with

Mateus and he was pretty receptive to all that we were saying to him.

Later that night we went to the Davis' (Sara Davis was baptized in

August). We stopped by and simply invited them to church (they had not

been coming for a long while due to personal issues with extended

family). It was so great! They both opened up and said they knew they

needed to come back to church, that they could feel a difference when

they did not go. They committed right then and there to go to church.

Then, before we left, we asked their kids in the other room if they

want to be taught and be baptized. Two of them were interested and

honestly, it was such a great feeling to see these young kids, all

three I saw, take a sincere interest to our message. The Lord truly

did soften my heart that day to see these special young kids take bold

steps in coming closer to our Father in Heaven.

I also had a pretty inspirational district meeting on Thursday. It's

pretty great, the past three weeks I had topics all relating to the

scriptures: The Book of Mormon is the Keystone of our Religion, How to

use Scriptures, and How to use the Book of Mormon. At first when I got

these topics I was a little confused because they are all so similar.

But my friends, they are all so different. I truly have learned so

much on the Book of Mormon and to use it more effectively and to treat

it with such great respect and love it deserves. I also have learned

new ways to help and to teach those to use the scriptures and to help

them feel the spirit as we read. This week it's zone training, but

next week the topic is the Book of Mormon answers questions of the

Soul. I'm really excited for that. It's also been a struggle lately

with Carmen. She did research about the church. When you hear the word

"research", that isn't a good sign. She saw some anti stuff on YouTube

and it broke my heart because it really had her confused. We are not

giving up though, we are seeing her tomorrow and we're hoping the Lord

is with us as we teach her.

Regarding my Halloween, we have to be in before dark (which is 5:30

over here) unless we are with members. Well, I spent my Halloween at a

wedding! It was for Rebecca and Spencer Mora. Spencer is getting

baptized this Sunday so we were excited for them to be married and for

him to be baptized. It's pretty special to see, especially since I

have been teaching them since the beginning of my mission. I'm just so

grateful the Lord has given me this opportunity to see both Spencer

and Rebecca have such special life changing events. There was also a

candy bar, so I guess you can say I got my trick or treating in before

we went back to the apartment.

Sunday, it was so strange. We had a sewage problem and it was a health

hazard.... So we had to leave church after Sacrament Meeting. It was

the weirdest thing. I don't think I have ever had church cancelled. It

was pretty strange seeing everyone just file out and go home. I was

blown away. I also experience daylight savings for the first time in

my life. It was so nice getting an extra hour of sleep. I can safely

say, I know I can live outside of Arizona now.

But to end this, I just wanted to talk a little more about what I was

thinking regarding the children I met. Imagine if all of us had the

great wisdom children do. We all have trials and struggles in our

lives. But if we had the great love and the positive attitude children

have, our lives would be so much better. It really put things into

perspective as Christ said be as little children. We really can learn

so much from them. May we all be as children, full of faith and

righteousness. As we do, we will press forward in this life with love

and joy, I guarantee you that.

I hope all of you have a great first week of November. 3 weeks left

for Elder Thomas. We are going to be putting in some work! We also

have Elder Harris' Golden Retraining tomorrow. It's so different

having both ends of the spectrum for companions. But it's exciting!

Take care.

Elder Cortes