(7/24/2014) We are
teaching a kid named Kxxxx who´s pretty cool. He´s 17 and from Ecuador. He´s
getting baptized on Saturday. His mom and sister are both members but are more
or less inactive. Kxxxx is a super nice kid. He really likes going to church
and helping others. He´s really receptive to the spirit.
Friday
night I did a baptismal interview for an investigator of Hermana Flake. We did
it a week early, I´m not really sure why. But the girl getting baptized is
amazing. It was like she had been a member her whole life. It was a really long
interview just because she kept bearing her testimony after every question. She
said she reads the Book of Mormon and just starts crying and doesn´t know why.
Her Book of Mormon is more marked up than mine with highlights, notes, and
post-its. Her baptism is Saturday night. Saturday there is a big ward activity
all day. It´s a chapel open house and it goes from 9 in the morning to 9 at
night, with people coming and going as they please. SO we thought it would be
cool if we had Kxxxx get baptized in the morning at 11, and Dxxxxxx, this other
girl, at 8 at night so that people would have an opportunity to see two
baptisms during the activity. It should be pretty great.
O
yeah, Axxxx is going to EFY [Especially For Youth]. It started today. She left
at 1 in the morning. She´s really excited. I feel a little bad because we kind
of pushed her to do it, but she was really excited about going and we asked her
what she wanted to get out of EFY and she said "I want to strengthen my
testimony" which was an amazing answer from a girl who hasn´t been a
member for even a month. And she showed us a text conversation she had with her
cousin that lives in Madrid. Her cousin is 12 and knows that Axxxxx was
baptized and everything. The cousin asked Axxxxx if she would need to be
baptized again. And Axxxxx started explaining to her the entire first
missionary lesson. And Axxxxx was asking her cousin questions like we try and
do like missionaries. SHe talked about how Joseph Smith prayed to know which
church was true and how he was given the authority and how we have the true
church on earth. Her cousin said "that all makes sense". And then Axxxxx
said "will you pray tonight and ask God if what I just told you is
true?" and the couisn said "yes I will. I´m crying right now and I
don´t know why". And Axxxxx said "That´s the Holy Ghost telling you
that what I told you was true". Elder Sharp and I were freaking out while
we were reading it. Her cousin and her family are interested and are going to
try and go to church in Madrid soon. They live in a small town 30 minutes away
though so it´s a little tough.
The
family in Belgium STILL have not heard anything from the missionaries. We have
sent the reference twice already. We´re going to call President Deere today to
have him get in contact with the Bishop there in Brussels.
There
is a sister missionary who is 34 so she is the oldest. I´m probably one of the
oldest guys. There was a 26 year old missionary but he went home a little bit
ago.
Things
I´ll miss about my mission...probably having a purpose. I also like organizing
and learning the cities where I´m serving. I love taking a new ward directory
and figuring out who is inactive and who has family that aren't members. And
then going and finding them and baptizing everyone.
We
don´t have to travel this week so hopefully it will be better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I´m going to make a concerted effort to write in my journal!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE
YA, Calvin
(7/14/2014)
But one cool thing did happen. There is a family in the
other ward in Elche and the mom and dad got baptized in October and they have
two daughters. One of them had been studying in Barcelona that whole time so
didn´t know anything about the Church. The mom and dad are really strong
members and always invite us over to eat. Hermana Flake and her companion are
teaching the daughter, Dxxxxxx, and she´s 18 and really nice and interested.
She told all the missionaries last week that she wanted to get baptized on the
26th of July but we had to keep it a secret because yesterday was her dad´s
birthday and we all ate at their house and she surprised him by telling him
that she was going to be baptized on the 26th. The parents knew she was
learning about the church but weren´t expecting baptism yet so they were really
shocked and of course super excited. All of us missionaries are trying to
convince the girl to go to BYU and she really wants to. She is studying
communications.
Nothing else really exciting happened. Axxxxx went to Madrid
for the One Direction concert which I was pretty jealous about. No one from
Belgium has contacted our recent converts there which is pretty annoying. We
sent the reference to the mission and have been trying to get in touch with the
Bishop there. The one who didn´t get baptized told us on the phone the other
day that she recieved her answer and will get baptized when she comes back to
Elche to visit.
Sorry that´s it. A pretty boring week. I need to be more
exciting!!!!!
Love ya, Calvin
No comments:
Post a Comment