Dear family and friends,
This week was a bit of a roller coaster but turned out fantastic!
At
first we were running around all over the place to teach our
investagators and nobody was home! =S Then for the next part of the
week, we went to a special zone conference with Elder De Hoyos of the
seventy, which was cool. The only bad part was that, since it was a
special conference, they didn't do the slide show or the testimonies of
those of us that are finishing up the mission. Bit of a downer because
I've seen the slide show of all the other missionaries with their before
and after pictures for two years and I didn't get it. Haha but it's all
good, no worries.
Other than that, we put into practice on Friday and
Saturday what we'd learned from the conference and we had a bit more of
success. Then, on Sunday, was the great part...
We had a LOT
of investigators and inactives in church! I went to drop by some
investigators with another young man on splits so that my companion
could pass for others, but they were'nt there, so I called another
investigator named Iris that we had been thinking would probably not be
able to go, and what do you know? She was already ready! So we ran to
her house (almost literally, because she lives far away), picked her up
(this time NOT in any way literal) and went to church! On the way there
we ran into her cousins, Oriana and Suheidy, who we baptized about 3
months ago (Iris being a referral from them) and we all walked the rest
of the way together.
There in the church, I was surprised to see lots of other
investigators who had gotten there by themselves, and then the Bishop
told us to speak in the ward, so I thought of how to apply my talk to
members and investigators alike, seeing as how there were a lot this
time. So I thought about it, didn't have any time to look for scriptures
(especially because I'd left my bag on the other side of the sacrament
room), but I searched 'em out in my mind a bit and then gave a talk,
during which I saw three or four more investigators arrive, which made
me even happier.
By the end of the meeting, we had 13 investigators in church! My
companion and I were pretty amazed and can testify of the promise in 2
Nephi 25:23 in that, (paraphrasing) ''we receive the blessings after all
we can do''. Including the less active members we had visited and
invited, we had 120 people at church this Sunday, when regularly we only
have had about 90 or 100 just barely.
Our Bishop was really happy. He actually loves us a lot and
sometimes calls us just to tell us that he loves and appreciates us.
So yeah, you could say I'm having a great time here.
After
sacrament meeting we had a special class with Iris, her cousins, and
another investigator named Mayra and her cousins (including Angel, also a
recent convert). In the class we did a quick review of the Restoration,
which we'd already taught to both investigators, but a little while
back, and then taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and commited them both
to baptism right there for this next Sunday, the 27th. They accepted and
are looking very happy and excited with their cousins helping them
along the way!
Other than that, I'm pretty much just working hard and happy to be
doing so here. It makes me sad to here about some things that are going
on back home, but I hope you all know that you're in my prayers.
Breanne, you know that your baby just wants to wait until I get back to
see him as a new-new born baby. Don't get mad at him because he's being
patient! Haha just kidding, I hope you guys can greet the new little man
this week.
Anyway, I think that's all, I hardly took pictures this week, but I hope you enjoy the two that I took.
I love you all a ton! See you soon-ish!
Elder DeFreese
1. Here I am with Batman. Wooh! =P This boy is the son of Mery, a
sister in our ward that helps us a lot. We were waiting for her son to
go on splits when 3 year old Dominic walked out and just started
cracking up in his Batman mask. Haha
2. In the home of Sister Elena on Sunday before she gave us a very
delicious meal with the favorite painting of the missionaries. Haha
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