Week 10 Santo Domingo: Who would have thought that I'd have to handle a problem like this...

Dear Family,

So this week was rather boring, but there’s a bit of info you might like to hear. It turns out our investigator/recent convert M is pregnant. She slept with a guy right before we taught her about chastity. Kind of an interesting twist. I also had my first interview with the Mission President, which was good. He is a really great guy!

But the real story for this week happened last Monday after I emailed home. We went to an appointment with a lady, and right in the middle of the lesson my comp got a call. He looked at me and said we needed to go. So we said a prayer and left. The call came from the Young Women’s president who said she had Y and her sister at her house and she didn’t know what to do.  We started running to Hermana Santa’s house (the Young Women’s president). On the way, my comp filled me in. The two girls’ dad is a pretty abusive man and tonight was a bad night. The girls were late to school and chose to skip instead of go in late, because they already had to many tardies. Anyway, we were running to Santa’s house, which is clear on the other side of our area. Walking there would take us probably 25 minutes, so we decided to take a shortcut through a river. We were running and we got to the river and it was dry... absolutely no water! My comp says he’s been here for 4 months and has never seen it dry. It was a miracle from God. So we crossed the river on dry ground and ran up to the Santa’s house. The first counselor in the bishopric was already there. We sat down and started talking to Y, the 17 year old girl, and she told us what happened. While she spoke, I have never felt such charity before. It was very powerful. She told us what had happened, and we offered her and her sister (the one that got hurt) a blessing. Her sister asked me to give her the blessing and I could feel the gift of tongues as I spoke. Brother F, the first counselor in the bishopric, gave Y a blessing of comfort. We shook hands with the girls and Y kept saying, ”Gracias, Elder Stark. Gracias.” I really wish I could of done more.

We then left with the counselor to go talk to the dad. Brother F did all the talking, but Elder M and I were there for moral, physical, and priesthood support. Brother F spoke very calmly and openly and handled everything super well. He is a really level-headed guy. It was getting late, and we were going to have to leave Brother F there by himself, when the Elder’s Quorum President and his cousin showed up. We were able to leave with just enough time to run home and get there on time. Another miracle! It was a huge testimony builder and one of the most spiritual moments of my life!  Super crazy experience. 

Who would think that I’d be here, handling problems like this. It’s mind blowing to think about.

Love,

Elder Stark