The Lord Worked A Miracle For Us This Week!

Bon Tardi famia i amigunan

Nos ta bon aki, nada a pasa desde e tempu di e terremoto.

See if you can figure out what that means Dad, haha! (That means we are good here, nothing has happened since the time of the earthquake.) To answer your question, we actually did really well when it happened. We just thought that it was like air coming in the house, and it only lasted like a fraction of a second almost, and so by the time we figured out what it was, it was gone, haha!

Well, the Lord worked a miracle for us this week! Because on Thursday, it didn't look like Miriam was going to be baptized. Her brother in law died, so she had to take her sister to the airport on Saturday, so she couldn't do the baptism on Saturday, and then on Thursday it looked like maybe she didn't want to be baptized, so we were worried, but then we called her on Thursday night to see if she wanted to get baptized and to see if we could bring the baptismal clothing over, and she said, bring the clothes. So, we showed up that night, and then on Friday, she was baptized by her husband Victor. It was awesome! We did it in the same place in the ocean as the last ones, and it was fantastic. (Pictures are on the blog.)  On Sunday, she got confirmed, and now I hope that I get to see them be sealed in a year in the temple. How awesome that would be! Victor's Mom is actually already endowed, and they all live at the same house, so it would be such a privilege to see Miriam become a part of that eternal family! What a blessing it is from the Lord when He blesses us to be able to work with families!

We still need to find those new families that we met a couple of weeks ago again and try to get them to come to church.  I think that we are going to try to watch The Testament with them.

Thanks for sending the package!! I think it will be great. Just one thing that may be of some help to us in the future (but I'm not for sure, we'll have to see if USPS works better), from what I understand, the national mail system here is where things get stolen. A member has told us that they steal things from the boxes here, so I think if you send it through a major shipping company, like FEDEX, UPS, or DHL, it might have better odds, but I'm not sure about that, because when the office sent our packages down here to us, DHL was a real mess and caused a lot of problems and charges, haha. But thanks so much and I'm sure that it will travel great!!  (We were bummed to hear this.  We have been waiting for a few months trying to see if our other packages ever made it to Jeff before we sent the clothes that he needs.  Henry checked with a friend who works for one of the major carriers who advised us to use the regular mail system rather than one of the three big carriers Jeff mentioned above for shipping outside the U.S.  Based on the friend's experience his opinion was that our chances of getting the clothes to Jeff were better through the post office than through any of the three major carriers.  So we decided to try that route and mailed the package this past week.  Hopefully it will get make it to him safe and sound . . .  I guess we're about to find out!)

Well, we are doing great here, we will actually have to fly off the island again this weekend to get our permission to be in Aruba renewed again. They only gave Elder Jensen 30 days when he came into the country instead of 90 because they said he didn't have a return ticket. The problem is that every one of the immigration people at the airport are different. So, we will probably fly out Sunday night and come back Tuesday morning. So, my next email will probably be sent to you from Curacao again!! Way cool!

Wow, the mountain trip, I miss that, and I miss my football!! That is starting up too! Please keep me updated on all of the sports, the D-Backs, and all of my football teams!

We truly are being blessed by the Lord here. It is such a blessing just to be here. More of a blessing than I can express. The blessings are countless, and I am so so so grateful that the Lord has permitted me to be able to serve a mission in Aruba, what a once in a life time experience. It is so true that if we keep our part of the promise, and keep the commandments, and try our best, then The Lord will always keep up His end of the agreement. His help will always come. Sometimes we don't feel it right away, sometimes He lets us struggle in order to grow, but He knows us so well, that He will never give us trials that we can't pass through. He will always make a way for us to make it through them. And if we will keep going, keep putting one foot in front of the other, then He will always come before we have to give up. He will always be there, and always loves us, and always knows how we feel. Even when no one else could, I testify that The Lord knows how we feel, and He can always heal us. All we have to do is try our best.

I love you all and am so grateful for all of you. By the way, I read that they broke ground on the Phoenix Temple, could you send me some pics of the Gilbert and Phoenix Temples? Thanks so much. I love you so much! I would always love to get pictures of whatever you have, haha!

Love,

Elder DeSpain

P.S.  (Henry asked how Jeff's Papiamento (language of Aruba) was coming along.)  Mi Papiamento ta bon, ami por papia cu e hende aki pa siña, pero aínda no ta basta bon.  That says that my Papiamento is good, I can talk with the people here to teach, but it's still not good enough, haha.  I can't really say that I'm fluent in Papiamento yet, but I do want to start with Dutch now.  I haven't been able to get very far in Dutch yet because we haven't been able to find an English to Dutch learning book yet.  So I've done a little bit out of a Spanish to Dutch Book, but we are going to have to try to look for the English to Dutch book again today.  I might have to have you send me a book or even better Rosetta Stone or some form of CD where I can hear the words in order to learn, ha ha!