December 18, 2017

Bye bye district! I'm headed to the mountains of the DR this week! woohoooo

Baptisms! Yay!

Our ward had our Christmas Party. They did a lil gift exchange type thing. I didn't have anything, so I quickly wrapped up a Law of Chastity pamphlet and a CTR ring.

So we were able to have an amazing night of baptisms! We combined this baptismal service as a zone and we were able to see 10 people enter the waters of baptism!  I will give ya'll a quick lil run down of my lovely people who were baptized.

I will start with my sweet Antonia who was definitely a miracle. So one day my comp and I were contacting in the morning and we were about ready to head to our lunch appointment. But I had one of the strongest impressions ever to go knock one last door. And then we met Antonia. She was so inviting. We didn't even say we were missionaries or anything, but she just immediately let us in. We talked for only a minute, but said we would come back, and every lesson after that we learned new things about her. She doesn't know how to read cause her dad didn't send her to school. She has two kids who don't really talk to her unless they need something. She lives alone in this tiny house without power. She told us about how before we met her, she was very depressed. She wouldn't even leave her bed some days. But after she started learning about the gospel and the love God has for her, she got a little more excitement for life. Then she went to church and made friends and got even more excited. And now she knows she has a purpose here on the earth and that she can have joy even though the circumstances are hard. When she was opening up to us about all this, I started to get very emotional because I just started thinking that if we would have just gone straight to our lunch appointment, and wouldn't have knocked on that final door we wouldn't have met this amazing woman who literally needed the gospel. After she was baptized she just kept saying, "I'm so thankful God sent me you angels."

I've been so blessed to have the joy of the gospel all my life, and now there is nothing better than to share this joy with others who have never felt it.

Okay next up Angel. He's 16 years old, and so great. Something great about this ward is that all the young men love basketball and so they invite all their friends to play. So every Friday night its like jackpot to go meet new people and set up some appointments. And that's where we met Angel and we were able to teach him with his best friend who's a member and several weeks later he was baptized. wohoo

Josephina is 12. She's the daughter of a less active. Honestly, I've never really taken much time to visit the less actives, but I made a goal to try and visit them more this transfer, and that's where we met this mom who hasn't been going to church for years, but we met her daughter who was interested, and now she's a member and helping her family become active in the church again.

Gilberto is the sweetest 10 year old kid you'll ever meet. Ever since his cousin Jose Alberto was baptized back in my first transfer here, Gilberto has been coming to church by himself almost an hour early every Sunday, He's part of the ward choir, and he's reading the Book of Mormon more than our adult investigators. The other day when I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up he said a missionary and a bishop. and when we were teaching about tithing he asked in shock, "Why don't we pay more? Why so little?" haha I would not be surprised if this kid is some type of leader of the church one day. 

Melany is the neighbor of the primary leader, and was involved in the primary program. After the primary program, she ran up to me and said she wants to be baptized. We spoke with her parents and they had all support. Although they don't have the desire to be baptized, they could see how the church was doing lots of good for their daughter. This girl is so smart and remembers everything. She says she wants to get married so she can have babies one day haha. 

And last we have Wilki. The calmest most adorable lil Haitian boy who definitely balances out the craziness of his siblings. It's been a long process for him to be baptized with all sorts of obstacles in the family and other things, but now he's finally a member and so happpy about it. 

I learned a lot about teaching kids this transfer. They are so special and they just radiate the light of Christ. I've felt the love that God has for his Children more than ever teaching these kids this transfer. It was definitely a transfer of miracles!