Gifts of Service

hey! im really sorry for the last few weeks that it has been hard to write, we are still trying to find the time to do all that we needed to do, and it made it really hard. but this next week, i think we will have the schedule down good to be able to write with plenty of time. this week has been pretty crazy. we have been planning and rehearsing for our zone service project, and for a sunday night choir devotional. monday night, thursday in the morning, and sunday before the concert. thursday we had the service project and we went to a retirement home, a home with older people with problems, and their family just stopped taking care of them, so they are in a pretty rough state, but were very happy and fun to receive us, well those that were able to recieve us. we sang 4 hymns, and they asked for an encore haha, so we sang silent night in the end without any practice and with parts, so it wasnt so good. but they didnt know, they only heard the words hopefully. i sang the tenor part to the songs, and it was fun.
i really miss singing in groups like this. then after singing, we went and painted the two main hallways, and the kitchen, and the cafeteria. with 22 missionaries, and president with his wife, it went by pretty quick. we finished it all in about 3 hours and were out by 2pm. then sunday, we were running around like crazy with the assistants and the secretaries for our food appointment. we ate together, because a member from their ward lives in atzingo,(but goes to palmas) and the ladys daughter goes to our ward, so they scheduled the same day to give us all together, so we had to find the assistants and take them there, because i was the only one that knew where the sister lives, so we got there late, and ate mexican steaks! they have nothing to compare to dad´s, but it was meat and not chicken. so i was pretty happy. they are such a cool and good family too. but that means that we were really late getting to practice because the food was really far away. but the devotional was really fun. it reminded me of what we did in the ward when i was little every year, and it was a good reminder of the experience of the savior. we had a rough day at church, because all of the 12 really good progressing investigators that we were hoping would go to church, didnt go, so we only had yesenia. the good thing is she will be baptized this friday! we will also have a ward dinner on friday after her baptism. this week was pretty nuts with all the parties going on, and the festival of the virgin mary, or guadalupe, the lordes mother of mexico as she is known here. sad... it was pretty hard to sleep all the week because of fireworks and parties, bands playing in the street etc all night long. a lot of drunks and fights, but nothing happened to us. well as you all heard about, the earthquake was bad, but nothing happened to us. we had just sat down to have a fhe with a family, and as we were about to start, we heard it in the distance. it was by far the biggest one of the three i have felt, but it was only like .7 more than the other two, but it made a difference after getting above 6.0. elder sonntag was happy and laughing about it, because it was his first shake, but it took him a while to realize what was going on. but all is well, nothing happened in cuernavaca as far as i have heard, and all is well.
well we are still working with maritza and diana, they didnt go to church, so they will have to wait another week to be baptized, and neither did our usual frequent investigators go. its crazy to see how hard satan works on the people we teach. the husband of a member has gone with her to church for 8 years, not constantly, but the weekend that we teach him for the first time, they get in a big fight and he went with his family instead of going to church. so its hard, but we will hopfully see him tonight. he is luis, please pray for him too. we are really trying to find new ways to teach the members how to do their part in the work, and teach them how to find their friends and neighbors that are ready for the gospel. thats what we are focusing on this week, and the next month is teaching them their responsibilities as disciples of christ. well i thank you all for your letters this week, im sorry that i wasnt able to write back, because it didnt give me time, but next week, i will be on top of it.
and mom, i hope you could read that letter by alfredo, he had a rough experience of leaving the church, but is finally back, and recieved the priesthood this last week, with plans with his girlfriend to go on missions!! its so interesting how God knows when to convince some of his children... i love you all, and i cant wait to hear from you soon, or see you on skype!
elder facer