Villa Agricolas 16 - Independence Day
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MOTHER LIBERTY. Proud to call myself a "gringo flaco".
"One Tie July", a thing Elder Aplanalp and I heard about, is going strong. Only been 6 days and I'm already kind of sick and tired of wearing the same tie. BUT, memories are important to make in the mission and you gotta' have fun working hard or you aren't doing it right.
The group at the temple. The part-member family we're teaching right now showed up a bit later when Juan Carlos and our converts were already inside the temple.
As the transfer is coming to an end, Elder Maatatia and I are really working hard to try and help our investigators keep their goals and stay progressing how they should. We are focusing on families, trying to bring the joy of the Gospel to everyone we can. Rudy is going to be baptized this Saturday if everything goes smoothly with his interview and with the lesson we'll be having with his parents on Thursday. His parents work crazy hours so it's really hard to find them in the house. But, we'll see how everything goes. He's really excited, coming to all the activities and he arrived at church even before we did on Sunday, which made me super happy to see how stoked he is. He is talking about a mission and everything already, and he's 20 so he could do it. Probably one of the best references I've received in my entire mission.
"Si, somos modelos Dominicanos. Cual es tu probelma muchacho?"
But on Thursday, Elder Maatatia and I had an experience we'll never forget. I've had a lot of "best days ever" in my life, it seems. But to be honest, this one beats them all. With the baptismal dates we have and with our recent converts (Frank and Eliany, Maireny), as well as with our ward mission leader Juan Carlos, we went to the Santo Domingo Temple. We rented out this little mini bus and went over there for the night. Our recent converts went inside the temple with Juan Carlos to do baptisms for the dead (if you aren't LDS, and are kind of freaking out right now trying to understand what I'm referring to, but you can look on https://www.lds.org/church/temples?lang=eng for more information). We stayed outside with our investigators and taught all about the temple, the ordinances we do inside, the importance of it. It was an awesome lesson and the Spirit was so strong in such a Holy place of the Lord. Maireny and Frank and Eliany told us all about it afterwards and it almost made me cry to see how much they loved it and how peaceful they felt afterward serving in the temple. We set some goals with them for a year from now when they'll be going inside to do even more sacred covenants with God. Really excited for them, and I hope that they can reach their goals so I can go see the temple marriage and everything.
Everyone at the temple (minus Rudy and William that had to take the pictures).
Our ward mission leader Juan Carlos, my favorite person ever.
Hope you're all doing amazing. Have a great week.
Elder Graff
2 Corinthians 9:6-7:
"He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."
"Every man according to how he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."
Said goodbye to one of my favorite elders in the mission, Elder McCary. Already miss him a lot. But we got a new elder named Elder Guigni from here who's really sweet. He knows a ton about the scriptures and works really hard. He turned into an atheist before the mission at around 14-18 years old and was super-inactive in the church. Until he read the Book of Mormon and when he finished, he started going to church again and decided to serve a mission. Really shows to me the power of Holy Scripture from the Lord. I have really come to love the Bible while I've been out here, but the Book Of Mormon just helps us understand even more of what God expects from us. Its pretty sweet.
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