Familia,
We had another good week this week. Well to start off we had a surprise bapitsm. We have had an investigator named Josúe who has been listening to the missionaries for about 3 months and has had wanted to be baptized from the begining but it has been hard for him with his family. He is a bigger kid but he is only 14 years old. I was really hesitant to go on with his teaching when I got to this area because he lives with his mom... she backs him up with his decision but she personally doesn't want much to do with the church. Josúe doesn't have much contact with his dad and he lives with his stepdad who doesn't like us to teach Josúe in his house because he gets jealous but is fine with whatever decision Josúe takes.... it's been kind of a rough circumstance. We made some goals for Josúe and he has been doing his part... he has wanted to be baptized... he has gone to seminary, gone to church by himself, and is signing up for FSY [For the Strength of Youth program]. He really is a remarkable kid and will be a great missionary one day. Well he did his part... so with the permision of our leaders, Josúe was baptized this last Sunday before Church. He's a really good guy. In other wards I wouldve been even more hesitant to baptize him but honestly... this ward is awesome and really takes care of the converts.
We also had some progress with Pedro this week. He is the one that payed his tithing the first week he went to church. Pretty much he is golden. He wants to be baptized and is completing with his assignments that we give him in the Book of Mormon and told us this last week that he knows that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. He already has a great testimony in the church and we have been teaching him for like 3 weeks. He is honestly just hilarious too... we laugh a lot in the lessons and is just a great man. I wish you could meet him. We invited him to go to Josúe's Baptism Sunday morning at 8:30 but he just told us that he would probably just go to church at 10 in the morning... which we were fine with. [SIDE NOTE: Baptizing at 8:30 Sunday morning means that we shower at night... get up at 5:00 a.m. so that we can go to the church to fill up the font with hot water and to be ready to start the program on time. There are a lot of things that we do as missionaries that people just don't know.] Anyways, we went to the baptism and to our surprise Hermano Pedro walked in ready to see the baptism. He is just awesome. He loves singing hymns and in church he stayed for the three hours for his first time... and then paid tithing afterwards.
In Gospel Principles, Bishop Frias, who teaches the class (which is just awesome and he does an awesome job), shared the scripture 1 Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do" and talked a little bit about how we need to be like Nephi and just go and do. Then Pedro asks, "But do you know why Nephi Said that?"... the Bishop was taken back for a moment and didn't understand why Pedro would be asking that and Pedro said, "Or do you want me to tell you?" Pedro then started relating the whole story about the plates and how Nephi was excited to go and do what the Lord wanted him to do and how his brothers weren't and then Pedro related the times Nephi had to go into Jerusalem and how Laban didnt want him to have the plates and how his brothers got angry and started beating up Nephi and then an Angel came down... :D I think you get the point. Pedro pretty much related the whole story in front of everyone... it was awesome. I know we shouldnt be prideful but honestly I have a lot of pride for Pedro. He is just awesome.
Things are going really well. We've got some baptisms coming up in these weeks. Daniel the Great couldn't go to church this week because he had to take is 3 year old girl to the hospital because her stomach was bugging her a lot and was very, very sick. Well about 15 minutes ago I received a text that his daughter Dayana is going to have surgery on her apendix... it sounds like they are going to have to take it out. Everything is going to be fine though. Daniel wasn't able to go to church so we will have to postpone his baptism this week.
I am loving the mission. It's hard to believe that this is my last change and my last 6 weeks in the mission. It doesn't feel like its coming that close... there is just so much work to do here and so many souls to save... I guess I can't really grasp that the time is almost up.
Love you all,
Elder Summers
We had another good week this week. Well to start off we had a surprise bapitsm. We have had an investigator named Josúe who has been listening to the missionaries for about 3 months and has had wanted to be baptized from the begining but it has been hard for him with his family. He is a bigger kid but he is only 14 years old. I was really hesitant to go on with his teaching when I got to this area because he lives with his mom... she backs him up with his decision but she personally doesn't want much to do with the church. Josúe doesn't have much contact with his dad and he lives with his stepdad who doesn't like us to teach Josúe in his house because he gets jealous but is fine with whatever decision Josúe takes.... it's been kind of a rough circumstance. We made some goals for Josúe and he has been doing his part... he has wanted to be baptized... he has gone to seminary, gone to church by himself, and is signing up for FSY [For the Strength of Youth program]. He really is a remarkable kid and will be a great missionary one day. Well he did his part... so with the permision of our leaders, Josúe was baptized this last Sunday before Church. He's a really good guy. In other wards I wouldve been even more hesitant to baptize him but honestly... this ward is awesome and really takes care of the converts.
We also had some progress with Pedro this week. He is the one that payed his tithing the first week he went to church. Pretty much he is golden. He wants to be baptized and is completing with his assignments that we give him in the Book of Mormon and told us this last week that he knows that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. He already has a great testimony in the church and we have been teaching him for like 3 weeks. He is honestly just hilarious too... we laugh a lot in the lessons and is just a great man. I wish you could meet him. We invited him to go to Josúe's Baptism Sunday morning at 8:30 but he just told us that he would probably just go to church at 10 in the morning... which we were fine with. [SIDE NOTE: Baptizing at 8:30 Sunday morning means that we shower at night... get up at 5:00 a.m. so that we can go to the church to fill up the font with hot water and to be ready to start the program on time. There are a lot of things that we do as missionaries that people just don't know.] Anyways, we went to the baptism and to our surprise Hermano Pedro walked in ready to see the baptism. He is just awesome. He loves singing hymns and in church he stayed for the three hours for his first time... and then paid tithing afterwards.
In Gospel Principles, Bishop Frias, who teaches the class (which is just awesome and he does an awesome job), shared the scripture 1 Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do" and talked a little bit about how we need to be like Nephi and just go and do. Then Pedro asks, "But do you know why Nephi Said that?"... the Bishop was taken back for a moment and didn't understand why Pedro would be asking that and Pedro said, "Or do you want me to tell you?" Pedro then started relating the whole story about the plates and how Nephi was excited to go and do what the Lord wanted him to do and how his brothers weren't and then Pedro related the times Nephi had to go into Jerusalem and how Laban didnt want him to have the plates and how his brothers got angry and started beating up Nephi and then an Angel came down... :D I think you get the point. Pedro pretty much related the whole story in front of everyone... it was awesome. I know we shouldnt be prideful but honestly I have a lot of pride for Pedro. He is just awesome.
Things are going really well. We've got some baptisms coming up in these weeks. Daniel the Great couldn't go to church this week because he had to take is 3 year old girl to the hospital because her stomach was bugging her a lot and was very, very sick. Well about 15 minutes ago I received a text that his daughter Dayana is going to have surgery on her apendix... it sounds like they are going to have to take it out. Everything is going to be fine though. Daniel wasn't able to go to church so we will have to postpone his baptism this week.
I am loving the mission. It's hard to believe that this is my last change and my last 6 weeks in the mission. It doesn't feel like its coming that close... there is just so much work to do here and so many souls to save... I guess I can't really grasp that the time is almost up.
Love you all,
Elder Summers