Written by Elder Dallin Remund, serving in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.
Bueno!
So, as you see in my subject, I'll be staying in Newport News for another transfer. Elder Barber and I are going for transfer #3 together. This will be transfer #5 for me here! I love it so much and I can't believe how lucky I have been to stay in my first two areas for such a lengthy amount of time. This assures strong ties for me and the members and the investigators that I've served with. I love them!!
I'm going to give an update on all our progressing investigators who are coming towards baptism in the next month or two.
E** and M** are going to get married this month! This came as a big surprise because they were insistent on December for a while. They're going to get baptized after their wedding. We are so excited for them. I am so blessed to see their conversion and faith. They changed the wedding to earlier because E** felt that it was a shame that they went to church every week and have to skip taking the sacrament.
J** P** is our new investigator and he came to church for the first time yesterday. He loved it and he ended up hugging a couple of the brothers after third hour. I think he feels at home being surrounded by faithful Hispanics who love the Lord. Good feelings there! The first week at church always makes me a little anxious because you never know what can go wrong. Our biggest focus for J** will be teaching the Word of Wisdom and helping him quit coffee and cigarettes. This is not going to be easy! But we have faith that the Lord will sustain him and the branch will help him in his struggles.
N** and C** are still working on getting papers from Belize so they can get married. They are now neighbors with some really solid members of the church, and the members are always over at their house. Cindy should be having her baby today! We will see! But they are loving the church so much, and the branch has been super supportive and loving to them at this exciting time in their life. Once they get married, N** will be baptized!
Amidst all the great things happening with our investigators, we've been planning and also done a little bit of partying as my birthday hit last Wednesday! As we say in Spanish: I completed 20 years!! Haha, the members have been giving us a lot of cake since they heard about my birthday. In fact, we're going to have some more cake tonight at E** and M**'s! I went to Red Robin with some birthday money and ended up spilling on a new tie I got from the family! Haha! Dry cleaners, here we come! And then one of my favorite families took us out to Tucanos on Friday to celebrate my birthday. We had a blast and Sister McCoy was cracking me up with her extravert-edness. She was cracking out jokes and bribing the waiters to get more food then they normally give. They're the beeest!
More than everything, I'm grateful for the Savior. I got to pass the Sacrament yesterday and had a great opportunity to reflect on the miracle of the Savior's love for us by giving us ordinances to renew our covenants and remind us of Him. The sacrament's significance continues to deepen and my testimony of repentance and forgiveness grows as I help other people receive the Savior's restored gospel.
I hope you all have a great week! Que todo salga bien con ustedes!
Con mi amor,
Elder Remund
Miracle in the Heart of Independence Day (July 7, 2014)
