9 December 2013

9 December 2013

Letter to all:

Well this week was a great week.  Why?  Because, we baptized!  Damaris was baptized Saturday!  What a great experience to see her get baptized!  Now that makes a family, Ronald and Damaris, the first family baptized here for quite a while!  I´m very happy that she decided to take this step, in the end she understood most of what we had taught and felt like she needed to get baptized.  We had Hermano Juan do the baptism, because there´s a new rule in the mission that missionaries can´t baptize.

Also a member who was excommunicated finally got the okay to be baptized. Sunday he asked me to confirm him, he´s going to be an awesome member he was a missionary, and he knows a lot.

Also a new member came to the branch, he´s from Costa Rica, his name is Bismar.  He has been a member for 13 years.  So he will be a great support for the branch, maybe he´ll be a counselor.  The branch is going well, now we are maintaining about 50 in church as an average.

Let's see what else...the members have been working with us more and more, and we have been having great lessons companioned with the testimonies of these members, we want every investigator to have a friend in church.

The new family Felipe and Felipa have a baptismal date for January 25th, he is catholic but open to listen to us and ask God about it.  He said, "But I have faith that I was baptized and there were witnesses."  So a member explained how he was catholic as well and he had doubts about getting baptized again.  The member also explained how small children are not capable of sin.  Then we told him he needed to ask God about it, if he should get baptized.  He said, "I´ll take your advice."

We had a good lesson with Wilmer and Flor.  We read 1 Nephi 3 with them because they haven´t been reading on their own, we read a part about why is was so important to obtain these records, then I gave them an example.  I asked Flor, ¨let's say you want to write your mom a letter, but the government wants to capture you for something you did and you put your life on the line to get this letter to your mother.  Then she gets the letter and throws it away.  How would you feel? ¨I´d feel that I am not important to my mother", she said.  Then I told her, the Book of Mormon was written for your great, great, great grandparents and when you don´t read this book, they feel the same way.  They understood well, and committed to read the Book of Mormon more.

Erasmo´s wife also has a baptisimal date for January 25th, hopefully she´ll stop smoking, that´s her biggest hang up for baptism.  

The other elders are going to had baptism this Saturday too, a family - complete as well, they´ve been working very hard too.

Everything is going great!  

Changes are this Wednesday, I keep saying I´ll probably go but I keep staying - haha, but this time I think It´s time to move on to my next and most likely last area.

Keep it up over there, keep reading the scriptures!  

Love, Elder Willden