Sorry about last week. I don't know what was wrong; I sent emails to people, but apparently only Richelle's went through. The others send comcast blocked them or something. :/ So hopefully this one will work. :D If not, I'll send this to Richelle and give her the homework of sending it to everyone else. ;)
But anyway, things are still going well. Monday, we had the biggest storm I think I've seen here so far (in my limited experience..). The drainage systems here aren't... terrific... so after about 15 minutes, all the streets were pretty well flooded. I tried avoiding walking through the water as much as I could at first, but before long, there was just no way. And, we had appointments to keep, so we just plowed through it. It got about knee-deep in a few places, sometimes a little higher. Which would have been fine if it were just water... But it's not... :/ There's dead rats, garbage, sewage, all kinds of fun stuff. At one point, Elder Leavitt said a large white thing hit him as it floated by, and he was like, "Hmm. That was a cat..." It certainly made getting from place to place a lot more of an adventure. It's a bit of a longer walk if you have to trudge through knee-deep floods to get there. It was fun. :D While we were teaching one appointment, we had trouble hearing each other because the rain was so loud against the tin roof, and in the middle of it, the storm passed right over us, and the thunder and lightning, which was fairly distant before, was suddenly striking right above us. One bolt struck right above the houses immediately across the street. The thunder was immediate, and was an absolute explosion of sound. KABLAM!!! I've never had it strike that close before. It was loud. The power also went out for about a minute. The whole thing was pretty darn cool. :D I would've taken pictures, but I didn't have my camera with me (which was probably good...)
Then this morning, about five thirty, another smaller storm passed by. My dreams were suddenly interrupted by a bright flash and an explosion. For about 5 seconds, I almost thought we were getting bombed or something.
But anyway, in other news...
Sunday morning, we baptized Brother Ver Paje (For the longest time, I thought his name was "Bear", because they pronounce 'v's as 'b's here). He's the brother of a formerly less-active member who we reactivated last transfer. We'd gone to try to visit them at one point, but they told us he was in the hospital for heart problems. We had appointments scheduled, but we felt prompted to go visit them instead. So we dropped all our appointments and went to the hospital. There, his wife told us that she had been praying, saying she didn't want to go back to the Mormon church (I guess because someone had offended her before), but didn't know what she should do. And then when we showed up to visit them, she said we were an answer to her prayers. Brother Paje said that maybe this was God's way of telling him he needs to go back to church. They asked for a blessing, and he's been recovering really well. Since then, they've completely turned around, from being inactive and not really even letting us in to talk to them, to completely embracing the gospel. Brother Paje then introduced us to Ver, and said basically, "Hurry, get him baptized before he starts the school year, so he can have the spiritual strength to get him through the challenges of life." We've been teaching him since, and he was baptized on Sunday.
I know this gospel is true, that this, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that this work of spreading the gospel to all the world is the best thing that can be done for these people, for only through the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can people obtain lasting happiness in this life and in the life to come.
I've also become a firm believer in referrals. All of my baptisms so far (again, in my limited experience) have been referrals and part-member families. Tracting is fairly effective (there are times when you find what we call referrals from Heavenly Father), but referrals have an immediate support system, a friend that can help bring them into the church.
Aside from that, things have been going well. My mp3 player is almost completely dead (it won't play, but amazingly, the computer still reads it), so I'm going to go buy a new one later today. Thing was kind of a piece of crap anyway.. :/
We had interviews with President Howard on Monday (before the storm hit), and he says he's going to try to keep Elder Leavitt and I together for one more transfer, which is really cool. :D Transfer announcements, of course, aren't certain pretty much until transfer day, but thus far, that's what he says he's planning on doing.
Other than that, just working hard, trying to improve myself, doing my best to help people out.
Glad to hear everyone's doing well. Having a marimba in the living room must be fun. :D Tell everyone to LEARN THEIR PARTS OVER THE SUMMER, DARN IT. :D It can't be that hard. ^^'' Sounds like much progress is being made so far. Richelle and Darcy, Wow. Writing a play for Ms. Deneen? Hope it turns out well. :D
Anyway, I'm about out of time. I'd send pictures, but... well, I'm out of time. :D Sorry. Next week! Until then, ingat!
Love,
Elder David Jones
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