Camron's letter......July 23, 2012

Hola familia, This week was pretty good again. We are working as a trio, which is three missionaries working together. We are working with elder Dunham and he is also from our group. It's pretty cool to work with him because he's a good missionary and he is great at gaining the confidence of investigators and the members. We got to help out with a marriage and then at a baptismal service in Puerto Suarez where elder Dunham works. This couple had been investigators for like half a year and they couldn't be baptized because they weren't married. But a friend of President Calderon wanted to pay for a marriage for someone here in the mission, so we made arrangements and he sent us the money needed. Everything worked out great. They were both married and baptized Saturday and then confirmed yesterday. So now they are members of the church and they're so excited that everything worked out so well. It was a great night. We are still working hard here in my area and we are seeing progression with our investigators. We were blessed to have the Lique family attend church this week and things still look good for their baptismal date on the 4th of August. They go to all three hours of church every time they attend, and they seem to like it. They also have friends in the branch. We are also teaching the family Ayala where there is a father, mother, and two kids that can be baptized. The mom and her son went to church this week and two weeks ago they all went to church. I was priviledged to witness a very touching forgiveness during a family home evening. The mother of the family has had a lot of fights with her mom. The last one they had was over 2 years ago and they haven't talked to each other ever since. But the mother invited her daughter to a family home evening and, during the family home evening the mom apologized to her daughter while she was crying. Then her daughter stood up and apòlogized too. The spirit was so strong and I could truly feel the power of forgiveness during this lesson. You could see the burdens taken off the backs of both of them. It was the strongest that I have felt the spirit for a long time, and it truly showed me the importance of forgiving others. We really need to forgive all and not worry about what the other person did because they probably don't really understand what they did. God will judge those who have offended and have caused damage. It is truly amazing the power that forgiveness has to take away the sadness and guilt. The power of the atonement is truly infinite. Soni is doing well. He is having a hard time believing that we shouldn't drink tea and coffee. But we finally got him to agree to pray to God and ask him if he should not drink them. He is an awesome guy and he is starting to open up a lot. We are becoming great friends. It is pretty funny that when we speak in Spanish, he doesn't understand. When I speak to him in English, my comp doesn't understand. And when he talks in Ebu (his native language) we can't understand. It's pretty crazy. Well cambios are this Wednesday, and I'm 99.9% positive that I will be assigned a new companion. So I will be excited to tell you guys next week what happens. Have an awesome week. Forgive someone this week, and ask forgiveness from someone you have offended.  I promise you will feel the power of the atonement, and it will be truly special.   Love, Elder Christoffersen