Familia,
This last week was a good week.... yes hard but we have finally seen some progress in one of our investigadores. Our investigador is named Adriana, she was attending church for about two years in the past but was living with her boyfriend so she couldn't get baptized. This is a huge problem, about every set of missionaries down here seem to be dealing with the same problem with at least 2 or 3 couples. Anyways Adriana was attending church for about 2 years, her kids all got baptized, but then they moved and stopped going to church. Only one of her boys has stayed active and he has 16 years (si hablas español entenderá porque dije has ;) ) and is a really good kid. His other two brothers are inactive and have problems with the Word of Wisdom. Well we set a date for the baptism of Adriana for April 6th a while back but she hasn't progressed at all... here in our mission the investigador has to attend church 5 times before baptism so its been kind of difficult to get people into the waters of baptism... but they are actually converted when they are baptized. Well Adriana hasn't been attending church for a long time and we kind of had to talk a little more directly with her. She understands the reason she has to be baptized but she just has been having a lot of trials so hasn't been progressing as an investigadora. Well we had a good lesson with her, were very direct, and she understood why it was important and she went to church this last Sunday! She also has accepted a new date for her baptism the 26th of April... and said that her son José also needs to be preparing for this so he can baptize her. She really is a great sister but just needs a little extra push to be able to make the baptism covenant with the Lord... that's why we are here :).
Elder Francisco is doing a lot better than he has in the past. He has always been really sad in the mornings missing his family, his beach, and his bananos. Yes, he is obsesed with bananas. It's hilarious. Probably about 3 times a day we have a conversation about the best kind of bananas. He really likes the platano verde. His favorite dish is something called mangu. It also involves bananas. It consists of unripe giant bananas mushed up like mashed potatoes, mixed with onion and salami. Sounds kind of gross to me... and I don't hide the my feelings about how gross it sounds, but he keeps telling me that I need to try it. The only problem is that they don't eat unripe banana here... le digo que nadie debe querer y nadie va a vender platano verde aquí... I tell him that nobody should but we keep searching. In the meanwhile I will keep enjoying the licuado's de banano (banana smoothies) he keeps making.
The weather is also heating up here. Nothing compared to the Dominican Republic (I am reminded daily) but it is getting hotter. I am getting a nice red tan, as usual, and Elder Francisco says that he also is getting burnt but I honestly can't tell ;)
Les amo,
Elder Summers
This last week was a good week.... yes hard but we have finally seen some progress in one of our investigadores. Our investigador is named Adriana, she was attending church for about two years in the past but was living with her boyfriend so she couldn't get baptized. This is a huge problem, about every set of missionaries down here seem to be dealing with the same problem with at least 2 or 3 couples. Anyways Adriana was attending church for about 2 years, her kids all got baptized, but then they moved and stopped going to church. Only one of her boys has stayed active and he has 16 years (si hablas español entenderá porque dije has ;) ) and is a really good kid. His other two brothers are inactive and have problems with the Word of Wisdom. Well we set a date for the baptism of Adriana for April 6th a while back but she hasn't progressed at all... here in our mission the investigador has to attend church 5 times before baptism so its been kind of difficult to get people into the waters of baptism... but they are actually converted when they are baptized. Well Adriana hasn't been attending church for a long time and we kind of had to talk a little more directly with her. She understands the reason she has to be baptized but she just has been having a lot of trials so hasn't been progressing as an investigadora. Well we had a good lesson with her, were very direct, and she understood why it was important and she went to church this last Sunday! She also has accepted a new date for her baptism the 26th of April... and said that her son José also needs to be preparing for this so he can baptize her. She really is a great sister but just needs a little extra push to be able to make the baptism covenant with the Lord... that's why we are here :).
Elder Francisco is doing a lot better than he has in the past. He has always been really sad in the mornings missing his family, his beach, and his bananos. Yes, he is obsesed with bananas. It's hilarious. Probably about 3 times a day we have a conversation about the best kind of bananas. He really likes the platano verde. His favorite dish is something called mangu. It also involves bananas. It consists of unripe giant bananas mushed up like mashed potatoes, mixed with onion and salami. Sounds kind of gross to me... and I don't hide the my feelings about how gross it sounds, but he keeps telling me that I need to try it. The only problem is that they don't eat unripe banana here... le digo que nadie debe querer y nadie va a vender platano verde aquí... I tell him that nobody should but we keep searching. In the meanwhile I will keep enjoying the licuado's de banano (banana smoothies) he keeps making.
The weather is also heating up here. Nothing compared to the Dominican Republic (I am reminded daily) but it is getting hotter. I am getting a nice red tan, as usual, and Elder Francisco says that he also is getting burnt but I honestly can't tell ;)
Les amo,
Elder Summers