March 17, 2008

Hey family!
How is everything going? How has your week been? Ours has past rather quickly! We had the baptism of Rumaldo Sanchez yesterday and he was really calm but happy about it. He is a stud and completely changed his schedule to be able to come to church. We have some good pictures of that so I’ll have to get them to you soon. I’m going to be sending a memory card home and my other one is almost full.
Also the lord keeps blessing us here. Last week we got juked by an investigator and then some kid named Junior called us and wanted us to pass by right then so we said of course. So this kid Junior Zavala is a cousin of a member and he is amazing, he has so many great questions. When we passed by the first time he told us he was down on faith, so we talked about faith and faith in Jesus Christ and in the first lesson we told him that the way he can have more faith is through baptism so we have a date for the 13th of April but we are going to move it up.
Also the blessings continue... Luis our commit for the 30th we couldn't find him for a couple of days so we decided to pass by at night so we passed by at 8:30 and it turns out that he had a wife and she is way interested in the church they are both from Mexico and she use to go to a melodist church and he is catholic, but they love us passing by and they are amazing, we passed by and went with them to church and they really liked it and the services were really good. The members really fellowshipped them so well. I get really nervous bringing people to church in anyplace in New York because the church is still really young here. When we had fast and testimony meeting our Relief Society President got up and shared her testimony and she start talking about how she use to wear immodest clothing and how she gave away all her "sexy clothes" after her baptism. She went off about some other things that we just don't talk about in sacrament meeting. And then another person got up and said that the bishop is the murder of injustice and the hero of standards. Oh and in priesthood there is a guy named Hermano Moron, in Spanish Mooron and he always gets up and starts yelling at who ever is teaching and he threaten to shoot everyone because that’s the way they handle things in his country. Ha-ha the ward is really strong here though they definitely need the missionaries and they still rely on us a lot. The bishop is from Peru and he is amazing and really works hard.
But it is always a fun experience bringing people to church. We had 3 new investigators in church so I was really happy. We have hit goals 4 out of the six weeks here. We will be having more baptisms soon, and it’s a really exciting time to be a missionary.
Transfers are tomorrow and Elder Imlay is going to Patchog and I’m going to be here with Elder Cosajay, he is from Guatemala but grow up in the United States, but I’m excited to really improve my Spanish.
I’m glad that you all are staying so busy. It sounds like real estate will keep dad busy. Ryan Stubbs isn't married? Tell him hi, he is a really good guy. How is the rest of the family? Missionaries from Moab? Tell Grandma Walston and Grandpa Jessup hi! I love you all and have to go!
Love Russ