February 18, 2013, President's Day

Dear Family,

Daina should be getting baptized THIS week if everything goes according to plan.  Satan tends to be pretty difficult though the closer you get to baptism, so we're just going to try not to go crazy under the stress before Saturday.  She is so amazing!  She has been doing everything that we leave her with and trying her best to live the commandments that we've taught her.  I'll let you know what happens this weekend, we're really excited for her!!

Waldina and Audelio didn't get married, he decided to flake out at the last minute, but we're going to try to focus on teaching the whole family when they get back from dropping their family back off in Houston...  I just don't know what could have possibly stopped them from wanting to get married though, they went through all of the classes and everything and just stopped.  Hmmm we'll see what we get out of that in the next few weeks.. 

Honestly, we're just doing the same thing that we always do - looking and teaching those that let us in.  Nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week.  We're teaching a member's 7 and 9 year-old kids that should be baptized soon as well!  They are so much fun and so easy to teach.  We taught them about why praying is important and told Mike, the 9 year-old to pray and he did such a good job at it!  We also taught them a little-kid version of the restoration and they seemed to understand everything we taught.  

Sorry, I'm having a hard time thinking about what to even say...  I hope that you have a great week and I'll let you know how everything goes next week.  We'll make it EXCITING...  Haha by the way we use the computers at the church, so we never miss out.  :)

Love,

Eric

February 12, 2013

Week #3

It was a great week!  Elder Winward and I work great together and we have been seeing a lot of success because of the effort we make to be diligent, regardless of whatever else we would rather be doing than work!  It's inspiring being with Elder Winward again because he has come so far in the past year and is such a great missionary and gives me hope that I can see so many blessings that will come later on in my mission from doing my best.  

Daina started progressing a lot this week after we had a lesson and explained about why it's important to read, pray and come to church.  It's funny because it feels like we're there to just give people a little nudge out the door sometimes.  She came to church this week and is planning on being baptized next Saturday as long as she keeps up her commitments.  She learns SO fast.  It's like she remembers and comprehends everything that we talk to her about.  She understands that the gospel is seriously clear as the day is true and doable.  It has built my faith a lot to see her so willing to give everything to the Lord.  I think that he has been preparing her for this for a while now.  

We are teaching several other people as well.  There is going to be a wedding in the church this Friday.  Two of our investigators were told by one of the members that the Branch President is able to perform wedding ceremonies, so we're hoping to get something great out of that.  Pray for them though because I have this bad feeling that they're going to stop acting interested the day after the wedding.  The woman we are teaching, Waldina, acts very interested in what we have to say!  

We received a LOT of referrals this week including a member referral a way out in the boonies :)  His name is Luis and he is one of the humblest people I have ever met.  He had a lot of great answers to the questions we asked and seemed very interested in knowing about the restoration and baptism.  He committed to be baptized on the 3rd of March after he gets a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith.  It's just been such a nice couple of days.  It feels like the Lord has been pouring down the tender mercies!!  

Everything is going great!  I'm sorry that I didn't write you yesterday, I just realized that I forgot to tell you that we had P day on Tuesday this week because we do that on the weeks that there are transfers...  I'm not going anywhere thank goodness.  I'll be killing (sending home) Elder Winward when this transfer is over :( It's sad, but also happy that my prophecy is being fulfilled haha

I love you!  Everything is great!

Love,

Eric

Monday, February 4, 2013

The Three Amigos

Dear Mom:

We have really just been looking for investigators since I arrived.  We are teaching a Puerto Rican girl named Daina, but she hasn't been fulfilling her commitments of coming to church or reading the Book of Mormon, so we'll probably stop going over until she starts picking up the slack.  We are teaching a Honduran family as well that comes to church as long as their friend that's a member comes, but she works a lot of the time on Sunday, so they're really not considered to be progressing either.  It's hard to tell sometimes with hispanic people whether they are being geniune or not because virtually anyone that lets you in their house is going to act like they love everything you have to say to them, but a lot of the time it takes a lot to get them to actually read or come to church...  We found several people this week that have a lot of potential and seem very interested, so we'll be stopping by in the next few days to see how their own personal studies and prayers are going.  

The thing about missionary work is that we seriously are only here to invite the spirit to show how true, powerful and important the message that we have to share is and then it is up to the investigator to change their own life.  Sometimes it's a little bit hard to not own other people's problems and just tell them exactly EVERYTHING that they're going to do to change.  

Elder Lee split off from the companionship because another missionary, Elder Hernandez came back out a few days ago mid-transfer.  It's really exciting because both of us went home right around the same time as each other and now we'll both be back in the same mission for the next year!  I'm pretty sure that I'll be coming back home in February 2014, but it could end up being April because those are the two months closest to the 21st.  I still haven't heard any more details from President Barry, but I'll let you know when I do.  

We moved out of the apartment we were living in and back into the one I was in with Elders Johnson and McArthur!!  It's in a LOT better shape than it was a year and a half ago though haha.  Elder Winward and I bought this mold and mildew cleaner that burned holes in this cardboard box we were using to protect the carpet from being bleached.  Pretty intense, but it is starting to come together.  So now my address is 6200 Barnes Road Apt. S8 Jacksonville, FL 32216 - please let Charlotte know so that she can send letters there :)  We'll be moving again around the 1st of March when the lease is up.

I love you guys a lot!  Thank you so much for the herbal tea and buffalo cup.  You could say it was a "celestial" gift.  Haha You know me too well.  Hannah updated me on everything going on in her life.  It really sounds like things are coming back together for her!!  It was so good to hear such amazingly happy news from her :)

Love you,

Eric