stitches

This week was awesome!

First off, there are 4 elders in our house and so its not always super calm. My companion got his eyebrow split open at 10 at night so we had to go out into the world after 9 30. It was so weird. We went to this clinic by our house and they gave him 3 stitches. HAHA! It was awesome.

We are teaching a lot of awesome people right now. Jay went to church again. We were teaching her and Francisco walked in. He hadn't shared with us for a long time but Jay told him to sit down and basically begged him to go to church with her the next day and he went! She does more missionary work than lots of the members here haha. She has a baptismal date for the 17th, my last Saturday in the mission. Pray for her. She has the desire but she struggles a little with the word of wisdom so any prayers that are offered in her sake will be greatly appreciated. 

We found this 17 year old girl a while ago but she lives half the time in a far away city that's also part of our area. She came to Salcedo for the weekend and we talked to her. She went to church on Sunday! Wooooh! She really needs the gospel in her life. On Sunday afternoon we went over to her house to teach her and her mom. I asked her what her favorite part about church was and her mom said, ¨los acompañantes¨ Uhhhh. At least she went to church haha.

I love the mission. I have decided to stay here forever.

The church is true and the gospel blesses lives. Keep the commandments and you will be happier.

We are friends with the guy that manages this place and he gave us the keys this morning to go play. It was so fun.

pelota

Francisco didn't go to church on Sunday which was a real bummer, but his aunt did. We had taught her a few times and she is really cool and she talks A LOT. They both told us that they were going to church on Saturday night and on Sunday morning she comes walking in alone without Francisco. She said he didn't get to her house on time so she left him haha. But it was testimony meeting on Sunday and halfway through the meeting she just gets up and starts walking to the front hahaa. I got SUPER nervous because I didn't know what was going to happen but she said that she felt a lot of peace and she thanked everybody for their testimonies. She is the MVP! It was awesome! After she told some people that she wasn't a member, but that she would be.

On Sunday we went back to some people that I was teaching like 3 months ago because we have talked to entire neighborhoods and I don't know where to go to find new good people. It was actually really good and all 4 of them said that they would go to church. 

One of those people was this guy that read the bible 2 whole times but went to Santo Domingo to work for a while. But we read Moroni 8 with him and he said that he learned some new things about baptism. The Book of Mormon is true and we need it to understand the bible.

Today we went to San Francisco and played baseball. Soy Dominicano.

EL MAR

Hello world,

I'm writing you all from the Caribbean. I'm doing good. Salcedo is hard, but hard is good so Salcedo is good.

We are working really hard. I'm doing all that I can. The really good couple that we are teaching said that they don't have plans to get married. He has a testimony. He knows that this is the true church. I don't think she has as strong of a testimony as him, but she knows too. The hardest part about the mission is seeing things happen like that. We have taught a lot of people here in Salcedo that get to know that what we are teaching is true, but aren't willing to make the necessary changes to be baptized.

But some good news is that the kid we are teaching, Francisco, went to church. He has a baptismal date for the 13th of this month and he would be my first baptism here. He is a really good kid. It's kind of hard for him to focus in church but I didn't pay attention when I was 15 either.

I've learned a lot from the mission and I'm grateful for the opportunity God has given me to be here.

I had to go to Santo Domingo to get my residency renewed so we left Sunday night to Santiago. Monday morning we left at 6am and got back to Salcedo at 3. It was a little rough, but we got the see the OCEAN!!! It was awesome. This country is pretty.

Me gusta la mision

We are teaching this really cool couple. I was talking about them in last weeks email but they are progressing really good. We taught them about the law of chastity and they want to get married. They got to church early on Sunday, like 20 minutes before us and they loved it. I went over to talk to them after sacrament meeting and Alexander said, ¨Esta es la iglesia verdadera.¨ This is the true church. I said,¨Amen.¨ The spirit testifies to people that have the desire to learn.

We are teaching this other really funny kid named Francisco. He talked to missionaries 2 years ago but didn't get baptized because they left and I guess missionaries just haven't talked to him since then. We put a baptismal date with him and he came to church on Sunday. He is a super funny kid and goofs off a lot.

We played basketball in this little arena here. It was cool. Ill send some pictures sometime.

We had interviews with Presidente Cowan. We talked about one of our investigators and about me going home. I started getting really sad because I only have 2 more months to be a missionary and help other people to change their lives and be happier. 

Some things have happened this week that have just made me realize how much better my life is when I keep the commandments. Sometimes its hard to be a missionary and keep all of the commandments but really its a lot harder to not live the Gospel and not have a strong relationship with God in your life. If you are reading this and are not satisfied with your life or how you feel I invite you to do something right now to get closer to God. The Gospel has blessed me so much. I feel good.

I love you all. Im only sending 9 more of these emails. The church is true.