So it sounds like things are pretty cool over there! I like the pictures of Germany, looks like a really pretty country like Austria! Good to hear Mom is learning some spanish. Its a nice language and not all that hard and really useful even worldwide! Entonces, sigue! I never got to do rogaine but thats cool Christina did, it sounds pretty cool. Good to hear the weather is warming up. The hot sun here may have heated up more but Im not entirely sure. Its just hot, and I dont mind it anymore so its all good haha. Sounds like everyone is pretty busy and everything, I hope the business stays as good business and everyone keeps having a good time. Dad can keep playing the accordion if he wants hahahahahahahah. Have fun with the new callings and adventures! Young Mens would be a huge job out here, so many youth both active and inactive.
Well the big news here is that all the things that were supposed to happen.... DID! As you may have seen from the pictures, we had a wedding, a wedding party at the church and a baptism of 5! Familia Ramirez Menyetti is now on the way to being an eternal family! The marriage was kind of interesting. Here they hold the whole thing in the little room in the office with the papers. They have to like sign the papers and stuff, and stand up sometimes and the lawyer completes all the stuff and stamps it. And then at the end they have a like ¨You may now kiss the bride¨ thing. Anyway, it was really exciting to see and be with them (although the ceremony not so much hahaha). The husband was smiling the whole time and just looked so happy to be getting married and baptized and stuff. His face kind of said ¨Woah man, Im getting married!¨. The wife was excited too and hugged my companion hahahahahahaha! Anyway, they were really excited. They even dressed up pretty well for it. We celebrated with them that day (it was wednesday I think) at their house and at the office and met some of their family members which was cool and chatted about these strange joke story things, which appear to be really popular in latin culture. They are really funny. Junior (the dad) loves telling the stories (kind of like Dad) and making jokes and chatting a bunch. Funny guy and super awesome.His coming to have a testimony is really neat, his is my favourite. He didnt really pay much attention to what was going on at first with his family getting taught and everything and going to church and stuff and even in lessons with us he said at first it was just kind of weird. But we always told him to pray about it. And for some reason that stuck really well, and he prayed. Eventually he says he just knew it was true. He had dreams about it frequently and just knew that this was the true church and he had to follow Jesus Christ. Anyway, he is really cool and shared his testimony at the baptism and his wife too. Martha (the wife), she knew it was true from our first lesson, it was a super powerful lesson and she went and prayed right away. It was really nice to hear from them at the baptism, they thanked God and us and I liked how they said that lots of missionaries had passed by before, even were teaching their daughter, but for some reason the time was when Elder Peña and I arrived. I am so grateful the Lord gave us the opportunity to help this family and that they were prepared for this moment. The kids are super cool (the little 8 year old was so excited to go in the pool and be washed hahahaha) and the young men really took in Walfin, the teenager, and now hes really cool and always says ¨Gracias por enseñarnos el Evangelio¨. Chantal, the daughter, after countless weeks has finally been baptized haha. She is the most solid in the family in terms of knowledge and will be a great person. They are all super cool, and its really neat that we got to baptize all of them at once. All five of them dressed in white getting ready for salvation. In their marriage, even though the official thingy says till death, they said ¨Oh, itll be forever haha¨. So I hope they can go to the temple, because we will be here to watch them be sealed!!!
The branch here is growing like crazy and helped so much with the family. We all organized a not so surprise wedding party for them, and it went actually really well. At least, everyone had a good time and of course it started an hour late but welcome to the church and even better here in the DR. But yeah one member made this amazing wedding cake with like the actual wedding designs and everything (I have no picture, it was eaten). Anyway, so it was a really cool time with a bunch of dancing that I severely wanted to participate in but did not. I asked Elder Lopez, ¨So... can I dance? haha....¨and he said ¨Well, take off your plaque and go haha¨. Anyway, it was a really cool wedding thing and we ate and had fun and the members danced and the family has been so well accepted. The President of the branch here is elated and has done so much to help the family and gave a super nice welcome to the branch and everything and the members are really pulling together for it and anyway its just been a great time and we just have to keep the spirit rolling.
Anyway, super cool times here. Hopefully someday this family gets sealed forever. We are working our bums off to make sure it happens. So if anyone needs some extra bum from some missionaries in the DR, call us. We have a lot of converts right now so that has been a big point of focus, hopefully we can find some new people amongst all the craziness.
So some other stuff happened I think... but I cant recall it we did too much work with the family for me to remember. But its been cool. Thanks for praying for the family, and please keep praying for them. We just hope so badly all the converts stay active forever and ever. Even if I took three tries to baptize the dad haha. The wife once, but the dad is kind of crippled in one foot and I didnt see that his hand was out of the water like 2 times. Ah well. Hes saved. And he always says it was because he had to wash more sins hahahaahahaha.
Ok, what else? Our new mission President arrived on friday! We have yet to meet him. Our conference with him is this thursday and apparently we have interviews with him someday. Or something. Its all a little hazy. But it should be cool.
The labour continues! Elder Peña and I are super happy and crazy elated with craziness and its been super cool times here in Azua. We rested a lot today haha after our fairly crazy week. Hopefully it just gets even better. We have two young men we are preparing to baptize and they are coming along cool so maybe we will just be baptizing and retaining and strengthening the kingdom forever!!!!!!!! YEAH!
Anyway, hard work pays off. I love the people here so much, and through just a little bit of work they came so far. I mean, really we didnt do anything the Spirit did and they changed their lives but it was great to be a part. As I always say to them, ¨Its always a pleasure, and it will forever be a pleasure to have known you¨. The same with you family and with all people Ive ever met. Forever changed. As Ammon said, We love them, and they love us and wow its just super cool. They were so converted they died for God. Anyway its cool!
Gracias por todo mi familia, que sigan adelante
Les quiero muchisimo,
Elder Sullivan
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