It's been a fun week. Attached, you will find pictures of my very first baptism. I don't remember all of what I said before, so sorry if the following is redundant information. But the woman you see in white is Soeur Callista Serieux, Baptized the 23rd and confirmed the 24th. She is from Saint Lucia, and therefore speaks english. She has two children, one of whom we hope will be baptized as soon as his visa paperwork is sorted out. Elder Larsen is the white boy. Come to think of it, this is the first time you've seen him, huh? For the baptism, I got to give a short talk on what baptism means (have the greenie give a talk-great idea!), and then I got to be one of the witnesses as well. For the baptism which took place on a beach in Martinique (NBD). Haha it was lots of fun.
Anyway, other than that it's been a pretty standard week. Normally I would be notified of my next transfer calls this week, but we're doing a sort of odd seven-week transfer this time, so I might not know until two fridays from now. In any case, this is Elder Larsen's last full week-next wednesday he leaves for Trinidad. It's been kinda odd for me, seeing someone else getting ready to go home and trying to keep my head in the game, but I'm doing okay. Lots of scriptures, lots of praying.
One fun experience actually happened last Sunday night-we were walking through downtown Fort-de-France, and suddenly a young guy, maybe mid-20's starts following us. Well...we didn't have to wonder long what he was doing, because he called out to us. We started talking, and...surprise surprise! He tells us that he's a member of the church. He's from Santo Domingo, and has been here for about a month, but had previously been unable to make contact with the church. Brother Jackson, 26, is a returned missionary as well, and a convert of 13 years. It's just a cool testimony to me that God puts his children in places to succeed, and that we can answer other people's prayers simply by being who we are.
Oh, and another exciting (for me) piece of news-I received not one, but TWO pieces of mail this week-one from Megan, with pictures of my beautiful nieces, and another one from Mike, my roommate. Interestingly, that one was sent through Dearelder, and was actually mailed from Utah (so it still took two weeks to get here), but hey, it worked. Thank you to everyone who has written and emailed, for thinking of me.
Also, I get really disappointed when my amis don't come to church. Likewise, I get really excited when they do. I imagine that, in a different way, your Heavenly Father is happy when we make sacrifices to get to church. I promise you, that as you keep the commandments, you make God happy!
THE LITTLE THINGS:
Alright, bear with me on this one-This week, I am thankful for american fast-food. Turns out that they have McDonalds down here, but it's not quite like we're used to it. Here, a small drink costs 1.75e, which is roughly twice as much as a large drink costed when I left. Basically, you don't have to worry about me eating lots of fast food, because we can't afford it! Moral of the story? You don't realize what you've got 'till it's gone.
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:
And just in case there were any doubts about the odd missionary instinct to find gospel parallells everywhere, today's thought comes from Toy Story. During my little talk on baptism, I spoke about what it means to take the name of Christ upon us. One take on it-what things do I have my name on? My scriptures, my clothes, and in general, other things that I value. Which is another side of this in and of itself, but the part I'm looking at now is the fact that I put my name on things that belong to me. When all the other toys were ready to fly the coop, Woody knew the name that was on him, and he was faithful to his kid. And for that matter, the toys could tell who Buzz was because of the name on him. So, as we considder our baptismal covenant every Sunday, let us strive to take the name of Christ upon ourselves in such a way that we and everyone who sees us will know to whom we belong. There's a scripture in Corinthians that talks about that, but I can't find it right now.
That's all for now, folks!
I feel like my emails aren't that informative some times. If I miss any information, feel free to ask questions and I'll get to it next time.
I love you!
-Elder Santos
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