July 23rd

THEY HAVE MY FAVORITE CEREAL!!
 

This week I saw how Satan tries really hard to stop the work of the Lord. He almost stopped Marcos from being baptized! Marcos' dad has been super cool with Marcos taking the missionary lessons and being baptized. All of a sudden, he told Marcos on Sunday that he couldn´t be baptized in the Mormon church. We were mad and frustrated and defeated. He was sooooo close! We prayed and prayed and continued to teach and visit Marcos this week. As of now, Marcos is still Scheduled to be baptized this Saturday. But please pray that everything will work out!

 

Sisters Colton, Anderson & Parker

Another thing that is slowing down the work is that darn Chikangunya! That cursed plague! It really is an awful illness. When you get it you get a rash that makes your skin look like pinkish reddish cottage cheese, a fever, chills, and worst of all this TERRIBLE ache in all of your bones. You´re bed-ridden for sure. Some people don´t get all of the symptoms and some people have it for a few days and others for a few weeks. But so many of our appointments are falling through because people are so ill. The worst part is that they´re all uninformed. We know that it comes from mosquitos because we have fliers from doctors and from the mission president and everything. But the Word on the street in Bonao is that it is really a contamination in the air (wrong wrong wrong) and they don´t believe us when we say it´s mosquitos. So they don´t wear repellent. So of course they´re getting sick! So far, the three of us have been spared from the wretched disease, and hopefully we will continue to be blessed with this unlikely immunity.

 

Funny story: We have been teaching a Jehovah's witness which is odd because usually they hate Mormons. But he seemed to really like us and our message. Well…we have now discovered that really he only likes us…or more specifically Hermana Colton. He calls often to see when we´re visiting next occasionally says sort of weird things. But we tried to look past it because we were hoping that he was really interested in our message. Well one evening he called and it was Hermana Parker´s day to answer the phone. She talked to him and he was asking about us and our weekend and chatting and so she was polite, but shortly ended the call. A few minutes later he calls and she answers again and he asks who he´s speaking to and she´s like "it's still Hermana Parker...." and he asks for Hermana Colton and so she passes the phone over and next thing we hear is Hermana Colton saying "What!? Sorry! It´s too loud in here! I can´t hear you! Bye!" Apparently he was telling her how nice it was to hear her voice and how that was all he needed....ha! So yeah, we will no longer be teaching him.

 

Other funny thing. Before I got to the DR, people in the MTC told me how in the DR they have a different word for bus: guagua. I figured it was just one of those things that happens with languages in different areas. So when I heard we were taking a guagua somewhere, I was imagining like a school bus kind of thing. Guess what pulls up? A small tiny VAN. Oh but don´t worry, they still cram in enough people to fill a small bus. hahaha. They don´t call it a bus because ITS NOT A BUS haha. 

Miracle story: so we met a guy in the street named Lucas a few weeks ago. We stopped at his colmado several times the last two weeks to try to make an appointment to teach him but he was NEVER there. I was getting pretty mad at Satan for always making things so hard for us. I´d felt really good about Lucas and had basically given up the hope of teaching him. So last night something strange happened, we actually finished all of our scheduled stuff BEFORE 9 pm! that has never happened the whole time I´ve been here! So we´re walking around like "hmmmm what can we do????" and we are rattling off ideas and Hermana Colton suggests a woman we can visit and immediately I was like "that sounds great! lets go!" and so we walk toward her house. Right in front of her house is Lucas!!!! We didn´t even see him at first but he called out to us and WOW! Miracle! So then we start talking to him and he read the pamphlet we left him and said he had lots of questions and we made an appointment. And then he starts telling us a little bit about himself. He lived in New York for 20 years. 18 and a half of those years were spent in prison. Yep. He told us that before, he was all about trying to get money, money, money. But do you  know what he did in prison? He read the Bible. 8 hours a day. Yep! For 18 years and 7 months! He said that when he left a lot of people were like "how are you so different and how can you be so happy and positive about life?" and he told them that it was because he read the Bible. Now he doesn´t drink or do drugs like he used to and he said "I just follow Jesus Christ". Wow. He is really interested in hearing about Joseph Smith and I just have a great feeling about him! He is such a great example of how God really does change your life. And what a miracle it was that we found him again! God looks out for all of us and you never know when he is going to put you in the path of someone who needs you!

This week's pictures: 
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByRUZeow-VaVOXRxVjA2TmxnRWc&usp=sharing