Dear Family,
Wow, well
what a week! You know when you are a missionary there are a lot of times when
it gets rough and you just feel like going home, but its those moments when if
you dig deep and work your butt off that you get the most success. Sort of like
working out; you don´t actually start building muscle till it gets hard. Well, that’s
how it was this week what with the 4th of July and Jake and Anndi getting
married, but I didn’t let it get me down and I decided to just not think about
it and work my butt off and wow, the results were crazy!
First off, E.
We got her baptismal interview taken care off and she is so excited to be
baptized. She has just been glowing with the light of the gospel. She is so
willing to change to grow closer to Christ.
A also got
her baptismal interview done, and she too is ready to be baptized and will be
getting baptized with E this Tuesday. We tried to get her husband to baptize
her, but she didn’t want him to for some reason.
Another fun
adventure that we had this week was that our zone is the one that goes on
splits with the CCM (MTC in the DR) kids. So we get to the zone leader’s chapel
and I get there and I see a bunch of missionaries come in. When I started
talking to them in Spanish they all looked really confused, so I knew it was
the CCM kids. There was one kid there though that went up to me and asked me if
I had a brother named Jake. His name is Elder Ownsbey and he said that he’s
Anndi´s cousin! It was a really fun split. We had some really great lessons and
at the very end we had a super spiritual lesson with a family that we found and
he bore powerful testimony and the spirit was definitely there and the family
felt it! Very good day!
Then the next
and best part of the week was Cookie and Fabio. Just yesterday our bishop gave
us a reference to one of his neighbors. So we set an appointment to pass by her
house later that night and it was the most spiritual first lesson I have ever
had! We brought the bishop’s wife over and just started out asking the woman
and her son how they liked the church and what they felt. Her son Fabio absolutely
loved it! He said that he wanted a Book of Mormon so that he could bring it to
church like all the other kids in his class. The woman, her nickname is Cookie,
also had a great experience and said that she has always been very shy, but
that when she came to church she felt like she was with family. She is Cuban
and has been missing her family but she felt at home in the church. She also
felt a peace there that caught her attention. At the end of the lesson we
placed a baptismal date with her and her son, and in her prayer at the end she
asked for help that she could join the true church! I am very excited for them.
And the best part is that their names are Cookie and Fabio! And they are Cuban!
Also for the
Fourth of July I think I might of broken the word of wisdom where it talks
about not eating too much meat because I ate 2 burgers and in the night time I
ate a huge steak and drank at least a gallon of coke throughout the whole day.
Hahahah, but hey, it was the Fourth of July!
Life is good here in the DR. Also
a big shout out to Jake and Anndi. Felicidades hermanitos!
Love,
Elder Stark