Elder Getts and Elder Hudson
Monday, September 5, 2011 Hey Everybody!
This week has been pretty great. I am so happy to be out in the mission field again. I feel way different this time, which I am sure is due to a lot of different factors. I have always liked Provo, and there is actually a bunch of missionary work to do here. My area is called the Bonneville area in south Provo, and we have two stakes: the Bonneville Stake and the Slate Canyon Stake, each with a Spanish ward, so we went to about 5 hours of church yesterday, which is pretty great, because the best three hours of the week is now the best five hours! Since it was Fast and Testimony meeting I was able to bear my testimony in each ward. My companion is Elder Hudson, who came on his mission from England and was called to serve in Madrid, but could never get his visa because he was born in the USA and moved to England when he was 13. He has been out for about 14 months, or about as long as I would have been out if I hadn't come home - he entered the MTC the week before me last year. He is obedient, excited about the work and we work well together. This mission is way different than the Dominican Republic (to be expected I guess). We get home at nine every night and we study all morning, so we have a lot more time and I don't feel nearly as rushed. We actually have been teaching and finding less than we did in the DR, but I feel like we are doing more work. I have definitely realized it is the quality of the work and not the quantity of the work that counts. It has been amazing to see the diversity here. Already I have met people from Venezuela, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, Honduras, Argentina, and needless to say, Mexico. I also love speaking in Spanish! The Lord has definitely given me the gift of tongues, because I feel like I talk so much better now even with my break from the mission. The Lord has really boosted my confidence and I am not scared of talking, contacting, or doing anything associated with missionary work and I don't worry much at all.
This past week we had three baptims from the Morales family. The parents and the middle daughter (her name is Jocelyn Morales and she is actually in a class with Cariel Smith and Timpview) were baptized. The youngest was baptized two weeks ago and the oldest is still trying to make the decision. It is pretty interesting in this mission because we speak three languages: English, Spanish, and Spanglish (because everyone who we talk to knows at least a little bit of English). They say stuff like: "Ustedes necesitan un ride?" The parents are usually the ones that know Spanish, and the kids know it very well, but it is still a second language for them since they have learned English in school and Spanish at home. So when a teenager opens a door we usually talk English with them because that is what they prefer. Another investigator we have is Veronica. She is from Mexico and barely knows any English, but she is married to an American member of the church who barely knows any Spanish, so they are both trying to learn each other's language. Elder Hudson and his companion received her as a reference the last week of August and on Friday we commited her to prepare for baptism on the 24th of September. We taught her yesterday and she told us that she had already told everybody at church that she was getting baptized and that she was really excited. She also told us she was doing it for herself, which is great! Another thing about her is that when we taught her on Friday she said the closing prayer and didn't open talking to Heavenly Father and didn't close in the name of Jesus Christ. So on Sunday we invited her to do it again and taught her how to pray correctly and she did it right!!!! That is a HUGE improvement from the DR, where we would tell some people how to do it every lesson for weeks and they still didn't understand, even though it is so simple! That really made me excited!
Jesus Christ lives! He loves every one of you and wants you to come to know Him. He has shown us the way to do it, through faith, repentence, baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. He has established his church on the earth today through a prophet, Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon that Joseph translated through the power of God is true, and I know it without doubt! If anyone disagrees I challenge them to take some time over the next 48 hours and open your heart enough to believe everything the Book of Mormon says during that time and pray to God to know if it is true and I promise that you will receive a witness that it is the word of God.
Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Getts
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