February 1, 2010
Family and Friends, Good Morning to you all!
Thank you all for your emails and your love and support this week. It was so great to hear from all of you and to hear that things are still going well! You really have no idea how much all of your love and support means to me. I will forever be grateful for the blessings that your are in my life.
Before I get started with my email I just wanted to say happy birthday to Jenny! Don't worry, I didn't forget. I just didn't realize that it was on Saturday. I thought for sure I had another email before the 30th, man how time flies! Hope you had a great birthday in London though.
Trent, I hope that you are doing OK! It sounds like your shoulder is really starting to progress. Don't ever be discouraged! You rock kid and you are going to be amazing when you get back to full strength! Thanks again to all of you for your emails and
stuff. I hope you have an amazing week.
So this past week was awesome for us. Like I said in the subject line, we set two new
baptismal dates with investigators this week and both were way cool experiences. We set the first one a few hours after we finished our emails last week. haha! His name is Andres. He is a friend of a few of the members in the branch and we have been trying to get hold of him forever. We finally started teaching him the other week and on Tuesday this past week we felt that we needed to invite him to be baptized. We felt prompted to bring along a member who used to be a sacerdote in the catholic church, and he has an amazing conversion story. (I have no idea what a sacerdote is in English . . . sorry never studied the Catholic Church in English, just Spanish :) hahah!)
Andres is a pretty timid guy and he has read a lot of anti-Mormon literature. But the thing is that he was still humble and willing to listen to our message. We talked about baptism, Christ's baptism, and how we need to follow Christ exactly. We then asked if he remembered his baptism. We talked about covenants and how when we are children we can't understand what we are doing. It was a great lesson. When we invited him to be baptized on the 27th he was a little timid, but that's when the member help came in. Miguel did a great job and totally helped Andres to get over his fear and to accept the invitation to be baptized. It was amazing to see how crucial it was to have a member there. Not just any member and I know that the Miguel was the angel that God needed to be there to help Andres accept his baptismal date.
The other baptismal date that we set was kind of a surprise to us. Her name is Junice. We taught her a first lesson the other week and we passed by again to see if she had read the Book of Mormon. She had not so we read the chapter with her. When we got to the part about baptism (3 Nephi 11) we started discussing baptism and how we need to be baptized in the same manner and with the same authority that Jesus taught to the people in this chapter. She then asked us when she could get baptized. We were both absolutely blown away that she would asked that! We were shocked but absolutely pumped. We made sure that she was really serious. She was so we set a date for her to be baptized on the same day as Andres! It looks like February 27th is going to be an awesome day!
Other then that we still had a good week. We have been working a lot with less active
members this week and I actually have a really cool experience for you guys. There is a family in our area who stopped coming to church like 20 years ago because they got offended. The mom used to always cook for the missionaries and they were just way
strong members. Anyways, they have been really negative toward the church for a long
time. Last week they were with a friend who had been in a car accident. Two missionaries walked by the accident and seeing a need, ran and bought some water bottles for the families so they wouldn't die while they were waiting for the police to come. The next day this lady called us and asked if we would invite the other missionaries to come to lunch on Saturday.
I was completely baffled but so amazed at what a cool effect that small act of service had on that family. The cool thing about the story and the lesson that I learned was that these two missionaries didn't do "missionary" things. What they did is something that any member could do. It's amazing to see what an effect you have on people when you truly are Christ-like. It reminded me of the talk that President Monson gave in the last conference! I know that we and others are blessed when we serve our friends, neighbors, and fellowmen!
OK, now I have a funny but cool story about Aruba. Aruba is home to really nasty
centipedes. These centipedes are really poisonous, like awfully bad. You can die within an hour! Anyways . . . we are always really careful about centipedes. They don't come into your house but when you are doing service you have to be way careful. We were helping our landlord clean up this week and we lifted up the board and these two huge orange centipedes came crawling out it was so crazy! They are like roaches too . . . they don't die! It was a crazy reminder to me that really, yes Dorothy you aren't in Kansas anymore. It was cool.
We had a Priesthood activity this week and they watched the Wilford Woodruff movie about the building of the Salt Lake Temple. It was way cool. It truly is amazing the faith and the service that those early saints gave just to have a temple. They did all of that just to have a temple to worship in. It is truly something amazing. I'm thankful for them and for the selfless faith they had to do what they did. Without them we wouldn't be here. They truly were amazing people.
Sorry that was kind of weird. hahah! But it's true!
Anyways, I have to get going. We are going to the Immigration Office today to try and
receive permission to stay more days on Aruba!
February 3rd marks one year since I got my mission call . . . since this journey began.
Thank you to all of you for all of the support that you have given to me. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys!
I love you all so much! Have a great week and know that I am praying for you!
Go Cougars! #10 I heard!!! Woo Hoo! Now, is Austin Collie going to be Super bowl MVP? I think so! Too worldly, silly me.
Love you guys!!!
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