Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Week 41 - Email conversation with Dad

Jeff:  Right now, I'm really tired- any questions for me? Do you remember the "Chatting with Jacob" thing I did for one of my weekly letters? Let's do that.

Dad:  How's it going with your new comp and new area?

Jeff:  Things are going well right now. My new companion is named Elder Roque (Rocky) and he's from Honduras. He's been out on the mission for about a year. When he had 9 months on the mission, he destroyed his knee and had to go back home for 7 months, but now he's back and he's chilling with me. He's a goofball, so we get along pretty well. He also likes to work hard.  As for the area, it's very big, but only one side of the area has a lot of production right now. we have our first baptism in the area this week!

Dad: Who is the investigator, and what's his/her story?

Jeff:  The investigator is named Risely. She's a single mom who is 23 years old.  Her story: She had once talked with the missionaries, but their persistence in passing by every day bothered her, and so she stopped visiting with them. She continued with her normal life until a close friend of her died. This close friend had a lot of problems with drinking and smoking, and she realized she didn't want that kind of life for herself or for her 2-year old son. She knew a lot of Mormon people, so she told one of them one day: "Look, I want to meet the missionaries." This is where I come into the story. About a week into this change, Brother Edwing Hernandez told me, "I know someone that wants to talk to you." We had divisions with the members, and I went to go meet her. She was very open to us about what she expected. She told me that the Church of Jesus Christ had drawn her attention because (according to her, I don't know) in some churches they don't really teach virtues that you can apply to your life, and in other churches all they do is dance and shout scriptures at the top of their lungs. So I explained to her what the doctrine of Christ was: faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how continually applying these principles helps us change and become better. I told her that as she met with us, she was gonna learn not only things that she could apply to her life, but also a message of the Gospel that she probably hadn't ever heard before in her life. She accepted a date to be baptized in that first visit, and now we've finally gotten to the week of her baptism.

Dad:  Wow!  That's pretty miraculous.  Brock will want to know if you've seen any huge bugs or snakes or anything like that.  Have you run into anything huge and creepy?

Jeff:  A TON of cockroaches, but that's about it. I'm in the city, so I don't really run into wild iguanas or snakes or things like that anymore.  Yeah, it's the projects, and it’s the most dangerous area in the zone, but it's still the city.  Where can we find fresh plantains in the states, Dad? Make mangu for the family.  Mangu, if you don't remember, is mashed plantain (like mashed potato) with eggs and salami on top.

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