Received April 19, 2010
Good morning Family and Friends,
I hope all is going well back home! That was so crazy to hear that Jenny is trapped in London! Jen I hope everything is going OK! You are in my prayers big time! I hope and know that everything will work out just the way that it should! That's so crazy that something natural could cause such a big mess for the entire world!
But yeah, everything will work out the way that it should just like it always does. I hope that you are able to make it home and I hope that soon you and your parents will be able to get back to London to go on the huge trip that ya'll were excited for. It was kind of cool to hear that information from like four different people. You sure are loved! Good luck.
This week here has been great. We have been busy with a lot of missionary work. We
are starting to get on top of the workload but sometimes it still gets the best of us. For the last two preparation days we have been working on closing apartments and cleaning (yuck) just silly things like that. Today we are planning to go to the the outskirts of the island and check out the national park. It will be a nice hour or two of relaxation. Something that we have needed for a long time.
But I'm sure that you all don't want to hear about that. You want to hear about what we did this week. So I will tell you!
This week was awesome! I chose the subject for this email because this week we were
able to have an absolutely incredible experience with the Petrona family (that's Jose and Claris and Monica). We went over on Tuesday night for the teaching appointment that we had and we took 4 members with us. Not only the members but we were also on a trade-off with on of the assistants. Then we also had their family of 5. We were all gathered around their house under their porch light as the sun was going down. It was so awesome! Having like 12 people gathered around talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ was so celestial!
Anywho we taught them the gospel, faith repentance, baptism, etc. and at the end the
spirit was just incredible. We knew that we needed to set a baptismal date with the
family. We invited them to be baptized and Jose said yes right off the bat, without a
doubt. We then talked to his wife and the Grandma. Claris said that the change that she has seen in her husband's life has been a miracle. That he has completely changed his life around and has chosen to follow Christ. She said that she knows this church is true and that she needs to do what her Savior wants of her. She said that she was going to be baptized. Monica agreed to be baptized too. She told us again that she is afraid of putting her head under water but she said that she would do it, if that is what she needed to do. The best part were the two teenage boys. We asked them and they were just like "yeah", like it was no big deal! I love it! It was awesome! We set the date for May 8th, which is my last Saturday here in Curacao and it is the Saturday before Mother's Day so yes, we are all very excited.
And then . . . on Saturday we called them to check up on them and they said that their dueno had turned off their water and that she was really mad at them for some reason. So they were kind of having emergencies. We offered to help but there really wasn't anything we could do. We were a little worried though because we had an appointment scheduled with them and then church the next day. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to meet with them or if they were going to be able to come to church. We went to their sister's house (who is the other family we are teaching) and wouldn't you know it, they were all there! We all crammed into their beautiful humble home and it was just awesome! There were like 14 Dominicans sitting there learning about this gospel and it was just incredible. I wish I could have taken a picture because my description doesn't do it justice. But it was just awesome.
Then on Sunday they came to church and were all smiles, even though they are going
through something really really hard. They still have the joy knowing that what they have found is true. Their testimonies are new but they are so strong. They asked us on Saturday how we have so much faith and we told them that we were just talking about how our faith is nothing compared to theirs and it's true! The Petrona family is amazing! I love them and I am so excited to see where they are going to go! This family is going to be sealed in the temple someday and I can't wait to see that day.
We also set a baptismal date with a lady named Amada. Amada is a really special story
for me too because she is a referral that I received last transfer from some other elders. They called us one Saturday morning at like 10:00 and said there was this lady who they had talked to and the cida was at 11:00. We were a little ticked because we had plans and stuff already and we decided we would not go to visit her and keep our other plans instead. But I just had this huge strong feeling that we needed to go see that lady. We ended up dropping what we had already scheduled and we went to visit her. Now, here we are a few weeks later and she has committed to baptism. It is just amazing. She is searching for peace and stability in her life. She is reading the Book of Mormon and she loves it. We taught her some of the commandments the other day and my companion talked about how when we follow Christ we find stability in our lives. She told us that is exactly what she wants she asked how she could do it. We responded with a baptismal invitation. She accepted and will be baptized on the 22nd of May! We are just pumped!
The Burnabella family is getting all of their papers together and they are flying out to
Venezuela at the end of April to get married! We are all so excited for them. Madeline came to church yesterday and I was watching her in the congregation. She looks like such a normal member. Both she and Clifton are awesome and set to be baptized! I might not be here to see it. But that doesn't matter. I am just so excited for them. They are on their way to the Celestial Kingdom and I can't wait to give them a great big hug when we all get there. That will be an amazing day!
I've gotta get going but I want to thank you all for your love and your support. You are all amazing! Mckay, felicidades on making it all the way to graduation! I am little saddened that I will not be there to witness it but I want to let you know how much I love you and how much I admire you! Way to go man! You made it! you are on to bigger and better things! You rock! Congrats again. We will celebrate when I get home. Congrats again man that is so awesome!
I love you guys and you are all in my prayers. Thanks for all you do.
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