Baptism In The Ocean

Bon dia mi famia y amigunan!!

Happy birthday Leah!!!!!! I'm so sorry that I didn't say that last week. The 22nd! Wow, so now you're 17, that's a fun one!

Hey, before I forget, I was just wondering what was up with the new Nashville Tribute Band CD, did it come out yet?

We're really thinking that I'm going to be staying here at the end of the transfer because we don't think that they're going to white wash the whole island, haha. (Jeff's companion goes home at the end of this transfer in three weeks so we wondered if he would get a new companion or get transferred.)

Alright! Taylor got to give his homecoming? That is sweet! Tell him congratulations for me and thanks for everything that he did for me and the example he was for me. He helped me so much, I can still remember being new in the mission and receiving a comforting call from Elder McBride who was all the way out on the other side of the DR, but he still remembered me. I am so grateful for all that he did for me! (Our friend Elder McBride was able to report on his mission last Sunday. Unfortunately we were out of town that day so we didn't get to hear his report. We heard that he did a wonderful job!)

We did have a baptism in the ocean!!! Karen got baptized!!!! Wow, it was so awesome! I finally figured out from Elder Lecheminant a way to get my pictures, so I attached a bunch to this email. (Henry is "renovating" the blog right now so once he gets through his construction phase we will add the new pictures to the blog.) Sorry for all of the time without pics!!! The baptism was awesome, and then on Sunday, they asked me to do the confirmation. It was such an honor. It was the first time that I had ever done the confirmation! They are an awesome family! What a privilege to be a part of working with that family!!!

Wow, Jacob had to have surgery??? I hope that everything is ok. Wow, he is a real trooper!!!

To answer Dad's question, actually, the English Branch isn't online. Like in the Church's chapel finder thing online, it doesn't show up, only the one in O'stad, which is the Spanish Branch. So we hardly ever get tourists down in the English Branch, but we tried to put their chapel online, so now we're just waiting for it to show up. We get the tourists in the Spanish Branch in O'stad and they just wear the headphones and listen to the translation to English. The O'stad Branch could be a ward if it was in a stake, but the San Nicolas branch, the English one, really needs help, they only get about 30 at church every week. I would really like to spend some more time working down there. Maybe that will happen more next transfer.

Really quick. We went by the main Aruba Post office today and checked just to make sure that they weren't holding the big envelope thing that you sent to my Aruba address, but the guy even went into the back and couldn't find it. If you have a tracking number from it, they said that they can look at what happened to it, haha. But he did find a letter from Todd and Grandma, so it was really nice to get those! Oh, and they sent my mail and packages that have been waiting at the mission home in Santo Domingo on Friday I think, so those will hopefully be getting here really soon.

Sorry, but I'm running out of time. We are doing great here, we have another baptismal date with the mom of members who is going to get baptized this weekend, and then we have two more baptismal dates for two weeks from now.

Thanks so much for all that you do and I love you! Keep up the great work, and never lose hope. I've learned that lesson, that if we set our minds on being happy, on eternal goals, on living worthy of those goals, then we will some day come to that, because that is what the Lord wants for us! I love you all! Thanks for the updates! And tell Dad that I'm not allowed to get on my blog, haha, sorry!

Elder DeSpain