July 8, 2013

Baptism of Paula

Zone Conference

Baptism of David, Lorenzo and Margarita

Missionary from Dominican Republic

Hey Mom! Wow, what are you gonna do for a week without Dad and Brock? Are you and Con gonna do anything to celebrate? The firework story is super funny, man I miss the 4th of July. I actually almost forgot about it until about 4pm that day and told my comp happy 4th of July. It was kinda lame they didn’t do anything to celebrate, you would think we were in a different country or something! So to answer your questions; yes the training went surprisingly well, my comp and I stayed up until midnight practicing the night before. But ya it went really well and we met and trained the new zone and district leaders from Paraiso and Oriental, they’re the zones that were from the south mission. They all knew Elder Austin Stevens and he told them to look for me and tell me ‘hi’ for him. Our house is nicer than the last one, but we don’t have an oven, and actually I’ve never had one in any of the houses I’ve lived in here. The members here are really nice too. The area isn´t actually the prettiest place I’ve seen here but I like it and there’s lots of work to do here. This week we baptized 4 people. Paula, a 16 year old teenager got baptized on Thursday and then on Saturday David, Lorenzo, and his 8 year old daughter Margarita got baptized. The fact that Lorenzo and Margarita got baptized is honestly a miracle. Lorenzo is blind and has had a super hard life. His sister is a member and she´s the one that gave us the reference to work with him. Every time we talk with him he always vents with us and shares experience he´s had in his life. Anyways, he was progressing really well and had gone to church a couple times and everything and he had his baptismal interview on Wednesday and during his interview he got super mad and came storming out and told us he wasn’t getting baptized anymore and that his daughter wouldn’t be getting baptized either. My comp and I tried to talk to him but he didn’t want anything to do with us. We didn’t know what to do so we started a fast. 2 days later we passed by with him and he had a complete change of heart and told us he was committed and that his daughter and he wanted to get baptized. After we left the lesson I asked my comp what had happened to change him and the only thing he told me was God. And he´s so right God gave us that miracle through our diligence and faith as we were fasting. I have gained a very strong testimony of fasting on the mission and have been able to see miracles because of it. Ya, I am closer to offices now, but usually the problem hasn’t been getting the packages from the offices to me, but it’s been more that the packages take forever to get to the office. Its definitely better to send them with Brother Garcia if you can but if you can’t, it should still get here fine in normal mail just seal it up with tape pretty good. You guys are right on track in the Doctrine and Covenants. Keep up the good work! Thank you so much for everything mom I love you and have a great week! Oh and really fast I forgot to tell you thank you so much for the CTR rings. We gave one to Margarita after her baptism and she absolutely loved it and wore it to church yesterday during her confirmation. They help so much to excite the kids, you´re awesome mom! Well, have a good week! Love you! Elder Johnson