Letter from Phillip on November 21, 2011
Mis Amores,
Wow, this week was an excellent week. The big news of the week would definitely be the baptism of Faustino. What an incredible man! He´s a short old guy, about 5’3”, but with a lot of class and style. He´s going on 80 years old, yet more active than the majority of 60 year olds here. Still going strong with his sculptures, and spending time with his family!
I got the chance to baptize him. We had some good support from the ward. The best part was after the baptism when he raised his hands in the air and gave thanks to God. Very evangelical, yet he pulled it off! It was a spirit filled experience and he was very grateful for the opportunity to follow Jesus. We learned a big lesson in the power of service from Faustino. He told us this past week that many years ago someone had given him a Book of Mormon and he lost it. So when he saw us, he felt he needed to ask and read that book.
OK, another sweet part of my week, was that we put a baptismal date with Santa, the wife of Francisco. This lady, is perhaps my favorite Dominican woman. She´s so funny. I hope you can one day meet this woman. Just to laugh along with her. But, she didn´t have any animo for baptism, but after so much time of chatting with us, she´s tentatively accepted a fecha (date).
Angela is doing well. She was going to be baptized this week, but she couldn´t go to Church yesterday, so she´ll be getting baptized in a couple of weeks.
Today at La Sirena, my roommates and I bought gravy packets, stuffing, cranberry jelly, and we´re buying a roast chicken on Thursday. Dia de pavo sera un dia vacanisimo....bueno sin el pavo, pero comoquiera, vamos a gozar (turkey day will be a sweet day, without turkey, but anyway, we´re going to have fun).
I recently saw a high school buddy, Elder T. We hadn´t seen each other the whole mission. Anyway, he´s doing great.
Well, love you all,
Phillip
