Baptisms

Hola Familia y Amigos,

 

First of all I just want to say Hi to all my family and Friends in Lake Powell right now without me :( haha nah im jealous and all but I know this is where im supposed to be and there will be PLENTY of summers to come that we will be able to live up just as much! Lake Powell aint goin anywhere... right??

Well im of course sending a lot of pictures this week because I forgot last week but as far as words... man i dont know where to start! We had another baptism this saturday of Jose Luis Amador and what a great experience once again that was. The plan was to have one of the recent converts and a good friend of Elder Contreras and mine in the ward baptize him but he had some problems getting out to SabanaGrande for some reason with school so Elder Contreras baptized him. The baptism though it was just as amazing as the baptism of his brother but I just keep picturing him as bryson and just love him the same way because not only does he need it becasue of his family situation but it helps me too! Jose is 13, so the same age as Bryson so that has been a really fun experience teaching him the lessons cuz Im able to get over the nervousness of my spanish and just kinda let Elder Contreras correct my conjugations but yeah its been really fun and I think I have learned the most from teaching him because I really studied hard in Predicad Mi Evangelio so that I knew what i wanted to say and what not but ive sure been growing a lot in spanish and not really even noticing it. Its been fun though and I no longer worry about saying things wrong, but just having patience with my companion and how much he DOES correct me. Its good though because most of the other Latinos here will just pretend like its correct and catch the just of everything... but this has been a really good, frustrating, fun, spirit, emotional, physical strengthening companionship. We find out tomorrow night where were gonnna go for Cambios, whether i stay here and get a new companion, or I go and he stays... could go any way so who knows... hes been here for 3 almost 4 months now so I think i know whats gonna happen and Im a little nervous but Im excited and ready!!

Well a little more about this week and what happened... we did a lot of divisions because supposedly the whole missionary program is changing... new videos that the church made, all kinds of new teaching material and everything so Elder Contreras was called in by President Chaverri to be there with the Zone Leaders and all to go over everything for 2 days. So I went on divisions with an Elder Quenta form Bolivia, he goes home tomorrow, so of course he was a bit Baggy but he is a really good missionary and I brought him back here to our area and we had some of our last citas with Jose Luis and other appointments and then just contacting but I sure did learn a lot from him. His spanish was a whole lot harder to understand and he never had the desire to learn english on his mission so that was a bit tough coming from my companionship because my companion is able to really work with me and supprisingly knows a lot of english for only having 7 months in his mission. But nah it was good, lots of different contacting techniques thats for sure! We placed 2 Books of Mormons and have an appointment with a familly of 9 this week, thanks to the help of Elder Quenta, so we will see how that goes!

Its been raing A LOT this past week and been having to wash a lot more clothes so my hands are getting pretty torn up haha but im stating to get the washboard technique down but just be greatful for them washing mashines that you all have haha. Oh and the daughter of our Concinera (cooking lady) whom are not member, are starting to have a lot of questions about what were doing, and we brought our photos over one night before dinner this week and she jacked one of our pictures of just me and Elder contreras that we had taken up in Aposonigua and just put it up on her little banister with her other pictures without even asking haha but it was cool and of course we were cool with that. Weve been able to develop a friendship and trust with her and her daughter. In fact her daughter, which is 23, wants to start learning English too so I offered to have a lesson or two a week with her. We also told them that we have some videos that we want to watch witht them..."because we dont have TV" and of course they are just simple movies about our church but yeah its been going good. We dont want to do anything to affend her just because her food is so amazing and is sooooo much needed haha but I pray the the lord will provide the way for us to touch their hearts and be able to teach them now that we have let them know that we are normal people, even though we have the title here "the mormons" but they know that now and its all good. Lots of progress is being made

 Not much more happened this week, it was just a really fast week once again and were getting ready to have changes now.. its hard to believe that my first Cambio is already up! ¡Que Rapido! I just want to share my short and simple testimony once agian with my family and friends in lake powell right now for family night, and all the other family and friends that read this later! I know that this church that I am in this foreign country, learning this foreign language for... is the church of Jesus Christ and it is the only true church on this earth. I know that because I look at the members of the church here, and especially these 2 new young boys that we have brought closer to christ, and the happiness that they have is unmatchless. I dont know how to describe my happiness that I have, it truely is a lot of blood sweat and tears.. but its also a lot of physical, emotional, and especially spritual growth and there is nowhere else that I would rather be. I only have almost 2 months here.. but I have seen the hand of the Lord in this great and marvelous work and their is no one else I would rather be serving other then my Brother, savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, and my Father in Heaven! I especially know that prayers are HEARD and ANSWERED! Thats my new short and simple testimony in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Now thank you everyone for the prayers and support! They are felt and appreciated! And for those of you on the Lake.. I sure do love EACH and EVERY one of you and dont you dare forget that! Dont have too much fun without me and save some water for when I get back aight!

 

Love yall
Cuidense