Monday, January 30, 2012

Letter from Elder Pfister January 30th, 2012

Hola,
   So the best news from this week is we got the medical papers we need to have our family (parents and 2 kids) married, so now we're working on that but everyone says that's fast, so we're hoping to set a baptismal date for the 11th of February. The other good news is we already set a date with this other guy named Angel. He is getting baptized on Feb. 11th. too. He's about 20 years old and super into the church right now. He lives very far away from the church but he still makes it every week to our 9 am meeting in fact he is usually early. I truly believe he´s been prepared by the Lord because he was the one that asked us about baptism after reading about it in the Book of Mormon. We were nervous about teaching him the Word of Wisdom because his aunt told us that he has problems with smoking and drinking, but when we started into it he told us that he had already quit drinking and smoking because he said he just felt that was the wrong thing to do-  so he quit on his own. Also he lives with his Mom and family and they are all anti-Mormon and they said he wouldn't be able to live with them if he got baptized.  So he got his own job and is working his heart out to have enough money in case he has to move out. He told them his personal salvation is worth more to him than anything, so he´s willing to do anything for it. But the good news is that his family has seen a noticeable change for good in his life since he's started living the gospel, and this has softened their hearts so i think everything will work out fine with him and his family. He's proof that if you put your faith in the Lord and do His will, everything will work out in the end. And more good news is that this other man randomly showed up in church a few weeks ago and when we talked to him, we found out that he's not a member, but he was talking to the missionaries where he lived, on the other side of Panama.  He said that he wanted to be baptized but that his wife (they're not married so i guess girlfriend or partner) didn´t want to get married, so he left her and moved in with his daughter here in Chorrera. That would be so tough because he's not young, and i think that they had been together for a long time. Anyway he also wants to be baptized so we´re meeting with him on Wednesday to hopefully set a date for baptism.  So that's the good news about our investigators so far. Rodney still doesn´t know what he wants to do, so we´ll just keep visiting him and hoping he decides to join the Church.
 
     The other news - which you already know - is that I got a new companion last Wednesday. His name is Elder Figueroa from Honduras. He doesn´t speak any English so it´s been all Spanish with him, but i like that.  So far he's been good; we're getting way more involved with the members and stuff and the work is going good so we´ll see.  However, I really miss my old comp, Elder Barahona. He was a way good friend to me and a good teacher with lots of patience. I wish he could´ve extended like he wanted to. One big lesson i´m learning on the mission is "don´t take the things you love for granted while you have them."   For example, i took our family and all the joys and comfort that it provides for granted and as soon as i didn´t have it, i miss it so much. Same with Elder Barahona, the first while i thought he was ok, just a normal comp, and i didn´t realize till just before he left how good of a comp he has been to me. Now with my new comp i´m realizing how much I like Elder Barahona, but oh well my new comp is fine.
 
That´s pretty much what happened this week here in Panama. It was great to hear from you guys and i wish i could i reply to everything you said but i´m running out of time, like normal. So to close, i just want to say that i know this Gospel is the true gospel of Christ and if you let it, it will change your life for good and bring countless blessings, we just have to look for them. I´m confident that everyone is blessed every day many times a day, we just don´t notice the hand of the Lord in our lives and all the amazing blessings we receive-  until we don´t have them anymore for some reason. So my personal challenge to myself and to you guys is try to look for the blessings in your lives and you will notice the little miracles that Lord gives us. I love and miss you guys, and can´t wait to see you again but for now I´m serving my Lord and loving it!
Love,
Elder Pfister
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