Wow, Mobile, Alabama sounds like a whole other country. All I have to say is, if Mobile is another country, I´m in another world. And these past couple weeks I´ve been so grateful for all the opportunities that I´ve had to learn.
What a week it was. We got the go ahead to teach a great sister in our area. She went to conference yesterday and is doing good. Her kids couldn´t be happier that she is taking the lessons.
I´ve pretty much contacted all of our town, except for some parts of Barrio San Francisco. This week, I actually had a lot of fun knocking doors in the outskirts of San Francisco. I´ve realized that there are truly people in the world without anything. I´m talking houses made from coffee tins with uneven dirt floors. The people love to hear the word of God and we´ve had some good teaching appointments.
I had another great intercambio with Elder Suero. I learned a lot about effective teaching from him this week. He teaches really simply, has a lot of enthusiasm, and gets along with everybody. And he doesn´t talk for too long either. We ended up teaching some good lessons and had some good times at the apartment. He finishes his mission in 3 months and starts med school soon after.
Saturday, was bittersweet. We didn’t get to watch Conference. But our baptism in the afternoon was great! And there is nothing like a good baptism. A baptismal service in our branch generally goes as follows: We plan on meeting at 6 pm. Everyone comes around 6:20 pm. At 6:30 pm we take pictures and a few minutes later, all the people playing basketball are rounded up. And then we have the baptism. The baptismal service is always great.
Christian is a great kid. You gotta love those kids – right? My buddy Nighter baptized him. Nighter is the 18 year old that moved from Haiti a year and a half ago. He learned Spanish like a native in 2 months. Christian´s family all came to the baptism. His Mom loves the message and has read all the pamphlets and gave him a lot of encouragement. All she needs to do is get baptized. One day...
Sunday was conference. It was great. I thought of my cousin Brian Hubbard and the great shout out for the Manaus Brazil Temple during President Monson´s talk. Elder Johnson was in top form. Sister Sylvia Allred talks much faster in Spanish than English, and the Spanish translation voice over finished 4 minutes before her English talk. I understood the majority of the talks in Espanol, but it has a better effect in English.
One of my favorite lines from Conference was from Elder Bednar, correct me if I misinterpreted this (I´m going from memory) but he said something like “many times we receive revelations, without realizing that we are receiving revelations.” I really liked the Joseph F. Smith quote that the Lord gave him his testimony little by little, until all doubt had been purged from his system. I really liked Elder Holland’s talk and appreciated his thought that these Conference talks are celestial messages, from mortal messengers. And I liked him telling about the life of President Monson and his years of service in the work of the Lord - which isn´t easy. It was nice to watch some Conference.
I was bummed this week when one of our investigators rejected us. Even, after a great first lesson! But we then found a great guy who owns a barber shop by the name of Jose. We set a date with him and all systems are go.
We are teaching two super cute kids right now. The boy is 11 and the girl is 8. They have family in the Church and they just wanted to hear the charla. We taught them for the first time. The girl practically had memorized the first page of the pamphlet. She recited it to us. The boy was so disappointed the first day back. He told us, “I prayed and I didn´t feel a thing.” I told him that if he “prayed with all the faith he could muster up, and ask a specific question to God, God will answer you.” He told us the next day that he did just that, and that he waited 15 minutes on his knees, and he got an answer! I wish you could have been there to see how sincere this kid was. He really wanted an answer. If everyone did that, the world would be a better place.
Next week, I´ll have transfer news. Oh and some time when you send a package, I want a head flashlight - like the spelunkers wear. It´s a pain at night time when there is no electricity and you have to hold a flashlight in your hand.
Love, Elder LeCheminant
Pictures below:
Elder LeCheminant & Elder Suero
A Christmas Feast in the D.R.!
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