3 June 2013  Doing Work

This past week was a lot of fun. We had Distrito Amigo in our area Tuesday. In Distrito Amigo all of the companionships go to one specific area of the district to make contacts, teach lessons, and ultimately find new investigators for us to teach. Elder Leal and I had the idea to gather some members from the Branch to do divisions with all the missionaries. In total we had 6 companionships roaming the streets of Butiá helping us find new people to teach.

 

I grabbed a list of old contacts I made with Elder Weber and hit the street with Alison, the young men's president here in the branch. It was pretty fancy because he has a car so we were riding in style the whole day while the others were trucking on foot in the dirt roads of Butiá. Well, we contacted almost all my old contacts and set up appointments to visit them all. The best part was that we found a family! It is my dream to teach and eventually enter into the waters of baptism with a family. That would be amazing. What is even better is that they are all super cool, Mom, Dad, and 3 kids. The only problem is that they aren't married... yet. A, the Mom, said she would like to get married. She also told us that she has been searching for a church that best suites her, and that all the evangelical churches have not met here standards. I guess she doesn't really like people going into comas, jumping, shouting, and some pastor telling them that Jesus will save them for $50.

A mentioned that when she was a teenager she went to a baptism in our church. She said that one of her friends was baptized, and that it was a really good experience. Also, she has had a lot of contact with a RM from Butiá that now lives in Maceo. We have really high hopes for them.

All the other companionships did a lot of work as well. Are schedule is pretty much full right now which is excellent. It is so nice that things are turning around in Butiá. Just a year ago this area had 1 or 2 baptisms in a whole year and we already have 3. I feel happy that I am helping to prepare the soil for future missionaries in our place

We have a marked baptism for the 15th of June. It is P, a 16 year old girl. She is the daughter of the lady that we buy bread in the super market. She is super cool and is basically ready to become a member of the church. She doesn't smoke, drink, use drugs, and doesn't like coffee ha ha. The sad thing is that her Father passed away a week ago so we have really been consoling here in this struggle. She had a wonderful time Sunday at church and already has made a boat load of friends. I hope we can baptize her before I leave Butiá. 

The last thing to talk about is that A is back in the picture. I don't know if you all remember her but A was one of our investigators that was almost baptized with her 2 children. The problem was that she couldn't stop smoking and was stealing in order to provide for the family so we had to cancel her baptism. Well, things are turning around for her right now. She was blessed with a oven and is now selling pizzas, cakes etc. is making some money. Also, she wants quit smoking and be baptized. I'm taking a lot of caution with her, because I don't want to baptize someone that is going to fall away from the church. What really shocked me was that Sunday she paid tithing on the money she made selling bakery goods, money that she really needs. In Gospel Principles she bore her testimony about tithing and it was pretty powerful.

That's about it folks. I enjoyed all the pictures Greg and Mom have been sending me from NYC. Thursday we have interviews with the mission president and he will most likely bring my package to the interview.

Until next week,

Love Elder Miller