Week 46

Ford and Elder .... Christmas Meal

(we did not get a letter from Ford last week, the skype call was WONDERFUL! here is his letter for this week :)
Dear Family,

This week was pretty crazy, I shall begin now.

It was wonderful talking to you all yesterday, to laugh with you and to meet the new additional member of our motley group. I thank the Lord, if not every day, then almost every day for blessing me to have my family.

Anyways, a few things about this week,

So Monday, we had a little bit of an adventure, our whole zone. A few weeks ago, our zone leaders proposed to do something different for our zone activity. We decided as a zone, to go caroling in the metro, or subway, of Santo Domingo! So we got 'permiso' from president, got some Christmas hats and prepared our vocal cords for this past Monday. We decided to ride to the end of the line, eat lunch and then sing the way back. The plan turned out really well. We put on our Christmas hats, and went at it. For ten missionaries who haven´t had a lot of vocal training it turned out pretty well and it was an awesome way to share our message, in a musical format. People actually took videos so I think you can find us on youtube, try la primer Navidad en el metro de Santo Domingo. I think President was fairly pleased with our efforts, the video may have been shared at the Christmas party on Friday, so half the mission got to hear our zone´s attempt of Cantan Santos Angeles, Hark the Harold Angels Sing.

The rest of the week went by like a blur. We had the Christmas party this Friday which was awesome. They fed us ham and cooked peas, it´s been a while since I had peas, they tasted great. we also got some gifts. I received a little first Aid kit and some cookies. Saturday, we visited some folks in the afternoon and then went to sup with the Familia Alburqurque. We had a great time and the food was delicious. We stuffed ourselves and then waddled home with Brother Alburqurque. 

Anyways, that´s a few things that transpired this Christmas week.

I love you all, Merry late Christmas and Happy new year!

Love,

Elder Call

Week 44

Querido madre y familia.

This twas rather busy week, lets talk about, shall we.

So life´s been kinda crazy this past week, We basically been working a double companionship which is cool. Elder Robertson and Elder Oliveira are the other elders in our district and they´ve been doing divisions with us to help us out. We are all in one house and it's sometimes a little crazy, but it's awesome. 

This week Elder Oliveira and I had an awesome lesson with a new investigator, her name is Omaira. She was a reference of a member and we meet with her this Friday. We taught the Plan of Salvacion, and about halfway through, Elder Oliveira felt impressed to share the gospel of Jesus Christ (another discussion, I assume.) It was a very spiritual lesson and Omaira felt it very strongly. She invited us to lunch yesterday and afterwards we finished teaching lesson 2 and invited her to be baptized. She agreed to pray about the 30 of December, we´ll know her answer this Tuesday!

It´s been a good, crazy, week.

Love, Elder Call

Week 43

Ford, Hansel and Elder Rivero

Hansel and Dad

Dear Mom,

This week, I shall speak a few words.

We had the baptism of Hansel this past Tuesday, a young man whose Dad is working on reactivation. I was able to do the ordinance which was really cool. He´s the second of my converts who I have been able to baptize. I momentarily forgot which side he needed to be on but quickly made the correction.

The week has been good. We had this really cool lesson with the Uncle of one of our investigators. We got there planning on teaching her and ended up teaching the aunt, Uncle and their little daughter who really wants to be baptized. We´ve invited Eliani to be baptized this weekend, for the Noche Blanca (white night) the stake is having. It´s basically a giant baptism of the whole stake. She still feels unsure but committed to praying about the decision.

It's crazy how it's already Christmas. The homes here are lit up with Christmas lights, when there is power (the city was without power yesterday, he didn't e-mail until today, Tuesday), and we're all working on the light up the world project the church is doing. Day two, said call your parents, We decided to postpone that assignment to the 25th.

Love you Mom,

Elder Call

Week 42

Dear Mom,

Thank you very much for the photos and the letter. I am doing alright. This special transfer has been a really good experience. Elder Rivero is awesome. He´s from Mexico, a town in the country called Hidalgo. I still can´t get over how cool it is that he´s from Hidalgo. He also is an awesome missionary who always looks for the positive in every situation and doesn't let stuff get him down. Here are a few photos of him.

The areas are doing good. We had a baptism in Los Polmares this past weekend. Her name is Chrismelyn, Elder Rivero and his latest companion did all the teaching but she´s awesome. We had a great experience talking with her parents, they actually received the missionaries a while ago but his job doesn't permit him to attend church, but he is still very supportive of his daughter's decision. Hopefully, Chrismelyns conversion will open the door for her family!

My investigators in La Victoria are doing well. Traveling between area´s we´ve lost a lot of proselyting time which is not good but we´ve managed alright. Were working with Hanzel, a young man of ten whose Dad is in the process of reactivation. We arrived a bit earlier to the appointment and talked with Hanzel a bit which was great. He´s a quiet little boy but has a big heart and I think is a lot more attentive than he gets credit for. We asked him what he remembered about the plan of salvation. He flipped open the pamphlet and showed us the picture of Jesus in the Garden of Eden. We talked to him a little bit about Jesus and how he is super important to us. In the end, the main thing that we each need to understand is how important the Savior is in our lives. How through him we can be healed, feel peace and happiness in our lives. Anyways, he also reminds me a little bit about a certain strawberry blond, blue eyed boy back home. 

I love you mom, hope your week is amazing with everything. Thank you for your love, your patience and long suffering, and your example of loving and trusting in the Savior,

With love,

your Son, Elder Call

Ford and Elder Rivero in front of their apartment?

A heater? No clue.....