Boca Chica 6 - Dreaming of Boca Chica Christmas!
Hey everybody!! There´s been a lot of things that have happened this week and I´ll try and fit them all in here if I can. Sorry in advance for the bad grammar and stuff cause my English is getting worse and I´m typing on a Spanish keyboard so there´s that.
But things down here in Boca Chica are going really, really well. We got news last night about transfers and Elder Tate and I, as well as Elder Beuhner and Elder Gee, are ALL staying here for at least another transfer so I´m really happy about that cause we´re working hard and making good changes to the ward here.
With one of the elders at a conference
First off, our investigators are all doing great. Luis, one of our investigators that is progressing a ton, is really loving the church and the gospel. He´s came to church every single Sunday since we first invited him, he came to basketball on Saturday, and he´s just really loving it. We invited him to be baptized but he said he really wants to be ready cause he knows that baptism is a life-changing thing and that he wants to be sure this is the true church before he commits. But he´s reading in the Book of Mormon, understanding a ton, and he´s going to pray about his baptism so we´re really thinking about him a lot and waiting for God to help him out. But we´re hoping the best for him.
His luxurious accommodations, with fan and mosquito net ....
One of the unwelcome roommates Breakfast in the DR
We have two families as well that are making the changes necessary for baptism and they´re both doing really, really well. The first family is the Sandival family. They´re all absolute studs and the mom, Nancy, has really been interested in the message recently. At first, she was just kind of there and her kids were the ones that we´re really into the Gospel. But we had some really spiritual lessons, and one lesson that happened 4 days ago made her want to get baptized. Her mom, Ni Ni, has a tumor on the side of her body and it´s really making it tough on her and her family. And we didn´t know about it until that day. But she told us all about it and about how they were going to visit the doctor in the capital and she was talking about how they didn´t know what was gonna happen. It had just been a really difficult thing lately for them. And for some reason, I felt inspired to read in the Book of Mormon in Chapter 24 of Mosiah. And so we read the chapter about Alma and his people when they were in bondage and how their burdens weren´t lifted, but LIGHTENED. We really stressed that part and they really felt the Spirit of the message. But after the lesson, Nancy told us that she´d really been thinking about our message and she´s noticed that ever since we started teaching them, her daughters and son have been more open, obedient, loving, and she´s just noticed that their lives have been really good and peaceful. So we´re going to teach them in the Church on Wednesday and if the Spirit is right, we´re going to invite them to be baptized.
We´re having a lot of "numerical" success down here in our area, but I wanna stress that baptisms are not the most important thing as a missionary. Sure, it´s what we´ve been called to do and it´s the door to a new life, but a lot of people get wrapped up in the numbers. What is more important is the lives we change, and the peace this message can bring forever in the lives of children of God. This message is more than just dunking someone in water and after that moving on. This message is hope. This message is love. This message is the only thing that can bring true happiness to a lot of families and people that are struggling and missing this Gospel. Christ lived a perfect life. He overcame every tempation in his way. He suffered every single pain, thought of inadequacy, sickness, and sin that we will EVER have the rest of our lives in the Garden of Gethsemane. And He sealed his Atonement with His own life on the cross for us. This is the message. I love this Church. I love that I get the opportunity to be here in the Dominican Republic. Everyone is a child of God. Everyone on this Earth is our brother or sister. And God loves us more than we could ever imagine. I hope everyone is doing good and that things are tranquilo back home.
Cuidense mucho todo,
Elder J. Taylor Graff
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