"It has been such a great and trying week"

Buenas Tardes!

I gotta be quick this week...

It has been such a great and trying week as well! A lot has happened good and bad...

We did have a great night this Friday with the Noche Blanca! Daniela Dominguez got baptized and I was privileged enough to be the one to baptize her! It was in the Stake Center in Las Américas and there was a ton of other people from the zone who were baptized as well! The choir got to sing and all in all it was a great night to be a missionary! 

 

You are probably wondering why we didn't have both Danielas get baptized this week. Well, the night before her interview she started to get really nervous, and started doubting things she never has before. We were able to help her through it for the most part and keep her on track. But the next night she didn't show up for the interview! We were really worried so we went to her house to see what had happened. Turns out that her mother had seen that she had been doubting her decision, and took that to mean that she wasn't prepared yet, so she decided to revoke her permission to let her be baptized. Daniela took it pretty hard, and her spirits are pretty down as of now. But the good news is that we have scheduled appointments to talk with the parents and hopefully start teaching them as well. 

 

But the baptism of the other Daniela was fantastic, it was such a great event to have so many people there to witness her special day. She is such a joy to be around and continues to grow in her little seed of testimony that she has planted in her heart, people like her are why I love being a missionary.

We also found via a less active member a golden investigator! His name is Luis Alfredo. He is the son of the less active and he is 21 years of age! He has been wanting to make changes for a while now and when we came he told us he had been waiting for us and that we were an answer to his prayer. We had such a powerful first lesson and he accepted a baptismal date without hesitation! Although we later found out that he had been making plans to move in with his girlfriend who is also 7 months pregnant. We taught him the Law of Chastity last night and he has told us that he will talk with her about getting married! I knew he was golden when he automatically chose the Lord's way. We are not sure how she will take it but we are confident the Lord will provide a way! He is such a humble guy and it is a pleasure to teach him.

We also found the golden of golden investigator this week. His name is Ruben and he was a reference from the Elders in Morichal! He is 25 years old and has a girlfriend who is a member. He went to church in Morichal and had the greatest of experiences, the Elders then taught him and gave him a B.O.M. When we went to contact him before choir yesterday we found out that he has read all the way to Mosiah in just about 3 days. Just to let you know how crazy that is... that NEVER happens here. Not even close! He described to us that he feels a certain peace and tranquilidad when he reads and he just can't stop. He feels completely like he has received an answer that the Book is true. He has already accepted baptism and we will try to place a fecha this week. He is such a miracle. I have such a testimony that the Lord is preparing His children in Colombia. I don't know what I did in the Pre Earth Life to deserve the kind of situations I was born into, but man am I grateful for this opportunity to serve!

We had a stumble this week with Yamile and Lina, Lina accepted a job that has her working every day all day and we can never see her! She is still reading and praying but she can't come to church. Yamile had a weird experience at church this week when Gospel Principles turned into Deep Doctrine class. It definitely got way too deep and she left a little confused. I have definitely learned that teaching too much is NOT a good thing. But we will talk to the Bishop to make sure that doesn't happen again. We are going to visit her tonight to hopefully answer some questions and get her back on the right path. 

Naomi is still doing great! She finishes her studies next week so we can start seeing her more and getting her more prepared for her baptism!

So as you see we have had such an up and down week! But this week looks promising, we have the privilege of hearing from Elder Uceda from the 1st Quorum of the Seventy on Wednesday. All the mission is going to be there and it should be a fantastic experience for sure.

Sorry about the pics again, I had to lend my memory chip to a zone leader to send pics to Hna Prince about our house situation. Let's just say the house is a fixer upper, and we might be changing houses haha 

Have a great week I love you all!

 

 Elder E