Mon 12/10/2012 5:01 PM
Well first off, I want to thank you all for your many
prayers, they have not gone to waste. As you may have seen in the picture, we
had a baptism, and man was it a miracle and a half, but more of that later :)
Anyways, I don't really remember all of your questions, but, Ill try to respond
to the ones that I remember haha. Also, thank you all for writing me, especially Brookie and Tanner, it is really good to hear from you two! I am so
excited for you Tanner for starting the cello, and yes, if you are careful, you
can use mine :) To be honest that is one of the things that I have been missing
the most lately is my Cello, it is definitely something that I am going to work
at again when I get home with this new found love and work ethic.
Ok, so Ill tell the story now, at least the shortish
version, and the answers to questions will come later because I want to make
sure that I get this in. So to start off, this guys name is Vincent, and
everything that happened with him is a pure miracle. I can't remember if I told
a little bit about the story behind him, so I give the quick version. Anyways,
so he has been investigating the church along with others for about 9 months
now, and the reason why he started is because his girlfriend is a member (flirt
to convert eh;) ). Anyways, so he went to church one week with his girlfriend
in the building of the AP's of this mission about a monthish ago, I am not
sure. Anyway, they sent us (well, my comp and his last comp.) his name, number,
and address, but for about 2 weeks they couldn't get a hold of him. Well, my
first night here in Loma Hermosa we went looking for him, and when we found his
apartment building he was just looking out his window, talk about a miracle! So
he came down and we talked to him a little bit to find out what he knew, and
ya, that 9 months paid off cause he already knew everything. So I asked him how
he felt about baptism, and he said that he wanted to be baptized! It was
awesome! The only problem was that this last Sunday he could go to church cause
he had something that he had to do, I didn't really understand it, but that Sunday night our district leader and his comp had a baptism, so we thought it
was a good idea to bring him to that one to see a baptism and 2 to have his
interview, and ya, it was a good idea. I think I mentioned this last week, but
after the baptism and interview I asked him how he felt, and he said that he
knows that this is the true church. It was pretty powerful. Anyways, so that is
the background, he comes this Sunday haha. So we had talked to him about
bringing him to church with his girlfriend in the morning, and he was totally
fine with that, so we show up to his house, and he isn't there. We waited like
20 minutes cause we could see lights on in his apartment, but no one came. So
we went to go call him and low and behold, he was already in the chapel. So
after the sacrament services, we talked a little bit, but we also had 2 other
people who showed up randomly to church, so we also had to talk to them to find
out who they were, and well, the next thing I know he is walking outside to the
gate. So we hurry and run over to him to see where he is going, and he said
´´well, I've been fasting a lot this week and I'm really hungry, I'm going to go
get something to eat real quick and come back.´´ Ya, this kid is amazing.
Anyways, so all of the services end, and he still hasn't come back, so yet again
we call him to figure out where he is. Well, he was at the gate waiting for his
mom who wanted to see the baptism. Talk about close. So after waiting we all
went inside to start the baptism, everything went great, and he got baptized! But,
after the ordinance, we all found out that he forgot to bring a change of
cloths, cause he had worn white pants and a white shirt to church, and was
baptized in that, but totally forgot to bring a change of cloths. haha so when everyone was saying congrats and welcome, he was soaking wet. It was funny.
But, he was baptized! Honestly, this was one of the biggest miracles that I
have seen yet, mostly because this ward hasn't seen a baptism in over 3 months,
and my companion hasn't been able to baptize anyone his entire mission, so is
really is amazing that I have been blessed so much to have been able to be an
instrument in the Lords hands to start to change this area around. More
miracles, we are also going to have another baptism this Sunday but that is another
long story that will take a whole email to tell as well, but keep in your
prayers that he, Carlos, can be baptized this coming Sunday.
Ok, so I have a little time for answers. So a little bit
more about my companion. His ´´full´´ name is Adrian Alvarez, he is from
Mexico, the city actually. We live like 40 minutes away from his house, so
having been in the MTC for 2 months, living 40 minutes away from our house, I
know how it feels haha. We really don't know when he will be leaving, for all we
know he could leave tomorrow. We have heard that the changes in his mission are
6 days before ours, so we very well could be companions until the last week of
this change, which is what I am praying for haha. We are actually pretty close
to a lot of things, but most importantly, we are really close to Costco, a
Panda Express (one out of 2 in all of the mission), a Carl's Jr., a Wendy's, and
a Burger King. Oh, not to mention Walmart too. Right next to the Costco however
there is a way awesome museum that I want to go see, so hopefully we will have
some time next week. So I forgot to tell you that if you are going to send a
package to do 2 things. One, put a picture of the Virgin Maria on it, and 2,
seal it with plastic all around it. I haven't heard of anyone's packages getting
stolen, and usually they only take like 1 week to get to the offices, which
means for mean it takes 1 week 1 day to get to us haha. Oh, Christmas, we don't know when, how long, or what, we can do for Christmas yet, but our zone leaders
said that they are going to tell us everything tomorrow at the usual meeting,
so I will let you know next week.
Ok, well I need to go. I love you mom! I am excited for the
packages!
With love,
Elder (papa) Noel
p.s Here is a scripture for everyone Alma 13: 27-30 and one for Brookie, Alma 27:28
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