Hola Todos,
This week was a little disconcerting at the end. We worked hard durring the week, and we found some great investigatores who are already showing amazing progress and joy over the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We recieved a refferal to a couple in which the wife is the aunt of a new convert and the sister of a soon-to-be-new convert. When we went to contact the refferal Dania, she wasn´t at home. Her husband, José, however, was there and recieved us with great enthusiasm. He was excited to talk with us and to find the anwers to a few of his questions and to set up a retern appointment for when his wife, Dania, would be home. Before we came back he had read and prayed about the pamphlet we gave him concerning the Restoration. He told us about how he has been in and out of different churches looking for the truth his whole life but still hadn´t found it. He even said that he had finished with saminary to become a member of the Catholic Clergy, but as he was about to enter into the organization he felt that something was telling him that it just wouldn´t be the right thing to do. Durring the course of the first lesson both José and Dania felt and roccognised the testimony of the Holy Ghost and were excited to read the Book of Mormon. This week only José was able to come to church, as Dania was sick. He greatly enjoyed the services and assured me that he will always be coming back and will be sure to bring Dania with him, no matter what her sitution is. Last night we were going to visit again and talk about marriage and baptism, but the appointment fell through due to an emergency in José´s family. We´re going to be visiting them tonight and hope to set some goals for marriage and baptismal dates after determining the situation of their marriage and their legal documents.
We were disapointed however, over the investigatores that had baptismal dates for this upcoming Saturday. Loudes had a baptismal interview with Elder Campbell this week and it turns out the she´ll need an interview with the Mission President, rather than with any other missionary. She just had been to ashamed to admit the problem to us before the interview when we had asked her about it durring the course of the lessons. She felt a little ashamed after the interview and we were sure to re-asure her that everything can be fixed through the atonement of Jesus Christ and that she should continue learning and preparing for her baptism. Unfortunatly she didn´t come to church yesterday and we weren´t able to make any contact last night to share a little more and help motivate her to keep progressing. Also, Michael, the other investigatore that had a baptismal date for this Saturday, won´t be able to get baptised this week either. His mother, Giselle, was recntly baptised, but the missionaries didn´t involve Michael, 11 years old, in the lessons. We´ve started teaching Michael now, but his father, who has long since abandoned him and his mother, has now started arguing with his mother about weather or not he can be baptised. He´s very adamant that Michael not get baptised. We hope to be able to talk with Michael and Giselle more soon, as neither of them came to chuch yesterday either. All in all, some investigatores progress and others are found in more and more need of help due to their induvidual circumstances. we just keep praying for the guidance and assurance of the Holy Ghost in helping us work with everyone and their individual needs and finding those who are truely searching for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.
Well, I love you guys! I´ll see you all in no time!
Cuidense!
Elder Adam Russell Rich,
Ozama, Republica Dominicana
