March 10, 2014

Hey!

Alright, we'll cut straight to the chase. Yesterday, we had three investigators at church with a baptismal date, and all of them are member referrals. Members play such an essential part in missionary work, because, to borrow a term from President Mehr, that is where the rubber hits the road. It's where things happen, and no missionary can be successful without that. I don't know what missionary work is like back home (which, incidentally, is not to my credit), but I can certainly imagine what I probably would have done if missionaries would have showed up at my door. So we need better things to do. We need to find ways to touch people's hearts, and our capacity to do that is so trivial compared to that of the people who live in the places that we serve.

Also, I lost my bible this week. That's the second time that that has happened to me on my mission, and it's officially not funny anymore. But hey, I guess I'll just get to start marking up a new one!

So, just in case I haven't said this yet, Elder Tolman and Pono are going home at the same time. It's interesting, because it helps me realize what that must feel like for you all the way on the other side of the globe. I'm glad you're in peace though. Jeffrey R Holland-faith is always faced to the future.

I'm sorry, I just don't know what to say for this week. But it was good! Two baptisms planned for the 22nd! Another one April 5th, and he could go out on a mission!

Yep.

Je vous aime!

-Elder Santos

March 3, 2014

Surprise!

A couple fun stories for today, but I'll try to put things in a sort of order.

First off, and just to put things in context, I should explain that our biggest struggle for the past couple weeks has always been being able to have enough time in our area to work with our members and investigators, rather than just running around for administrative things. So, a couple stories about that.

One is that we had a meeting at the church just about every night this week-Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And the thought ran through my mind that service in the church is a big time commitment, especially for people who aren't missionaries and might have other things that they could be doing. I appreciate the example of those who choose to spend their time in the service of the Lord.

Also, during our meeting on Thursday, our branch president turned to me and told me that a recent convert, named Alline Pedre, was planning on presenting her baby for a name and a blessing on Sunday, and that she had asked me to do the blessing. So, that's cool. Turns out it didn't end up happening yesterday, because the baby was sick and didn't end up coming to church. So we'll see what happens with that in the future!

Other cool story from this week is about Karine. Wait, one quick note before that.

So I decided that when I grow up, I want to be like Dominique Afoy. I've already spoken about her before, she's our recent convert who is a missionary work machine. She just lives and breathes her (still growing) faith, and shares what she has with everyone. And people respond in an incredible way.

Okay, back to Karine. She's a good friend of Dominique's, and in fact is a referral that she gave to Elder Sosa and I before she was baptized. We only ever got to see her once before I left though. Apparently, afterwards, the missionaries continued to teach her for a while, but she decided to stop taking the missionary lessons for a while. This past week, Elder Tolman thought of her, and we decided to pass by to say "hi". When we yelled at her house, she was on the phone with Dominique, who was, again, telling her that she should get baptized. She told us later on that that same morning, she had been crying and prayed to God to send her someone that could help her change her life. Nous voici! Then, this morning, we got a call from Dominique, who wanted to tell us that Karine has asked to be baptized on March 22nd. Miracles!!!

Also, for those of you who aren't aware, tonight marks the first official night of carnaval celebrations. So be safe and stay out of downtown!

Avec amour,

-Elder Santos