Happy Birthday Mom!

Hello PO!

We had a great week this week here in STA Monica. Before I start everything though....Happy Birthday Mom!

Well we taught Carlito and Pass, of course, and they are doing great, Sister Pass was baptized last Saturday, Elder Villa performed that baptism and it was a very great day. Sister Karen, who we have started teaching again came to the baptism and it was really nice to see her. She is also doing really well, but didn't come to church... :( Both Cheryl and her sister are coming though. So that's good. We also had 3 less active members come back to activity last week, which means they came back to church and attended 4 times in a row! It was really great! We were really happy to see that. Things are going really well in STA Monica. We need to start planning for March though because right now we only have a few potentials for baptism and they aren't attending church...yet...

The Torenueva family is doing pretty good, they didn't come to church last week though, that is the less active family that has a child that isn't baptized yet. We had a plan to baptize her next week but do not want to and can't because her mom is still less active...

Last week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges in Elder Cooper's area. It was a good day. We got a lot of work done and I got to meet some of their investigators and people they were working with. Their area is stuggling though.... I'm a bit worried. Actually this week the work was the lowest it has been this whole transfer, especially for baptismal dates. We had a really good week the week before but we really dropped this week, so I'm kinda worried. The last district meeting was about baptismal dates too and how we can't just have them for a stat but an actual goal date for an investigator we are teaching. We practiced teaching what we were going to teach and extending a baptismal date. The Zone leaders were also concerned about how the baptismal dates were going down and they gave a commitment to the zone to give out 5 in a week and a half. Then this week it went down.... I'm not yet sure what we're going to do for district meeting tomorrow.

Things are going really well though in STA Monica. We're teaching quite a few good families that haven't come to church yet but we have plans to help them come. Also we had someone who was trying to debate with us but at the same time he was saying that he didn't want to debate, so that was kind of annoying...

Oh, and also something pretty cool, we have a dinner appointment everyday this week, so that's going to be exciting. We're going to ask the appointments if they could bring a nonmember friend though so we could teach them. I hope it works and we are able to find new people to teach! :D

Anyways I know this email was kinda short, but I really have to go. I still have to do an evaluation form for Elder Cooper...

So I love you guys so much! Thank you for all that you do and thank you for all your prayers! I hope Mom had a great Birthday and I hope you guys have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Chris Gagnon