Monday, June 28, 2010

Preparing for Angel´s baptism!

Received June 8, 2010

Buenos Dias Y'all

I hope that you all had a great week this past week! I really hope that you don't think that I think none of you are writing me or emailing me. I am sorry if you got that feeling from my email last week or from my letters. I couldn't be more grateful for the support that I receive from all of you back home. I realize how busy you all are and I honestly don't expect all of the support that I have been receiving. So if you felt that last week I was talking about how nobody was supporting me I apologize. Honestly that is the complete opposite of how I feel. I love you all with all my heart and I couldn't be more thankful for the love and kindness and support that you have all shown me over the past year! Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!

Anyways, this week was a fun week for us. Things are really starting to pick up here and I am loving things every day more and more in Vega Baja. This beach mountain town is awesome! I really can't believe how beautiful it is here and how blessed we are to live in this awesome world. Sometimes I wish that you all could see it for yourselves. And then other times I wish that I could keep it all to myself . . . no I'm just kidding. I hope that you all will one day get to see the beauty of Puerto Rico because it really is amazing.

But by far the best thing about right now is not the beauty of the earth but the beautiful experiences that we are having with our investigators (was that cheesy enough for you guys!?) No, but really, thank you all for your prayers and your love because things are going great and miracles are happening. These special happenings are blessings and miracles that we don't deserve, so thank you for your prayers, they mean the world.

We are planning to have a baptism this week with our great friend Angel. Like I said last week, this man is just amazing. He is so golden and so prepared for the message. He can't wait for his baptism and neither can we. Its so exciting to be a part of the work when you have someone like Angel. He is truly a blessing in our lives. This week was a little stressful though. We had an appointment to go and visit him on Saturday. He called us that morning and said that he had been robbed. Someone had stolen all of his personal papers. He said he wasn't going to be able to meet with us because he would be out trying to fix everything. He told us that he wasn't sure that he would be able to come to church the next day either. We were both really worried because this was a huge obstacle that would maybe push back his date to make his baptismal covenant with Heavenly Father. We dropped to our knees and prayed. Later that day we got a call from him saying that they had found his papers and that everything would be OK. He thanked us for the prayers we offered to help him and said that he would see us in church the next day. What a miracle! I know that God heard our prayers and that he blessed Angel with the miracle that he needed. Angel knows he needs to be baptized and he is doing everything that he needs to do and he is being blessed abundantly by the Lord.

On Sunday we were in Elder's Quorum and we were discussing blessings for the sick and afflicted. We read together in James 5 about the blessings and Angel raised his hand. He said "the scripture said that if there are any sick among you to call upon the elders of the church. Well I am sick and I know that you are Elders, so I would like to ask if I could have a blessing." I was so shocked. But at the same time not really because I have seen the amount of faith that Angel has and this was just another demonstration of that incredible faith.

The Elders in the quorum gave him a blessing and it was a sweet experience to see the members of the ward give him a priesthood blessing. It was a really neat experience for Angel too. He said that as soon as they started the blessing, he felt something rush through his body and he felt better. He knew that he was being blessed by the power of God.

Needless to say we are really excited to see our friend enter the waters of baptism on Saturday. It should be another incredible experience with our Angel.

That's the first Angel and our other Angel is doing just great! He came to church for the first time yesterday and he loved it. The part he liked the most was sacrament meeting and specifically the sacrament. That was really cool because I've never really seen that in an investigator before. The part he loved most about church was the reason that all of us go every week. It was really neat to hear that come from his mouth but also to see the appreciation that he had for that time even though he hasn't been baptized yet. He is also just awesome and so prepared.

It was a huge surprise to see him on church on Sunday! We are still working really closely with his wife. But she just has a ton of medical problems and so its really hard for her to take the time to listen to us. But little by little we are gaining her confidence.

We were teaching Angel the plan of salvation this week and he had a question about children and sin and infant baptism. We turned to Moroni 8 and read it with him and he loved it. He said once again, as he had other times, that the words coming from the Book of Mormon confirm something that had always felt in his heart, something that he had always known to be true. He said he knew for his whole life that it was wrong to think that children could sin and that now he had found the answer that he had been searching for. He continues to read in the Book of Mormon and is loving every word of every page that he has been reading. It has been an incredible experience to see the way that the Book of Mormon has blessed this man. It truly contains the answers to questions of the soul and we are so blessed to have it. It has been a huge testimony builder for me to see the difference and the influence that the book has made on Angel.

He continues to progress and work his way towards baptism. We are still working to set a goal with him. He knows that our message is true because he has felt it! This should be a great week with him! We are both really excited to see where it will all go!

But yeah that's about it for this week. We had to drop a lot of investigators this week which was kind of hard. But it was also good because it gave us the opportunity to do some searching for those that God has prepared. We talked to some really awesome people and we are excited to get to working with them this week! I know that I talked last week about a lady that we had found named Mary Selles. The lessons that we had with her were amazing. She is the one that asked us if we would keep coming back. We weren't able to talk to her this week because the appointments that we had with her all dropped. But we are still working with her and I know that she has some great potential!

But yeah, things are going great! And once again I hope that you all don't feel like I am discouraged. I could never be discouraged with the way that you have been supporting me! I love you guys so much and it means the world to me that you would just take the time to pray for me. So yeah, I really hope that none of you feel that I am discouraged or feel that you are not supporting me. I am so grateful for all you have done, and all that you continue to do for me!

Anyways, it sounds like summer is in full swing. I hope that you all have a great week of fun in the sun. It gets really hot here during the day and then it rains. Then it just stays hot and the humidity is 100%. Its like a sauna, but its good! Keeps that water weight down.

I love you so much and I am so thankful for all that you do. Have a great week and know that you are all in my prayers!

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