Camron's letter......July 30, 2012

Hola Familia This week was pretty good. We had our cambios and I'm once again with another American and his name is Elder Blaser from Pocatello, Idaho. Now I've been companions with the only two Elders from Pocatello. He is pretty cool. We have a lot in common and I'll bet we're going to have an awesome time as companions. I'm pretty sure the Elder Blaser is going to be my last companion because when you come here to Puerto Suarez as a Zone leader you usually always stay for at least 6 months. So we will probably have four months together. I'm sure we will have a blast working hard. We are pretty excited with the baptisms that we're going to have this Saturday with the familia Lique. They passed their interviews and they are excited to be baptized. We had an awesome experience  during church yesterday. We always teach a class for the new converts and investigators and there was this sister that's about 56 years old who was recently baptized this year. She told the Lique familia that she had changed dramatically after being baptized and that it has helped her to become a much better person. She also explained that she was nervous about being baptised and didn't want to so it at first. Then the father of the Lique familia said " I have some doubts too. I want to go to church a little bit longer so I can get to know the church better, but the missionaries say that we need to be baptized now so we can be cleaned of our sins." Then this sister responded to him and said,  "That's very true. You guys need to do it because our Heavenly Father will change your lives and willl help you become better people." Then without knowing that we had already had a baptismal date with them for this Saturday, she said to them, "How about this Saturday for your baptism?" Then they said "You're right. We need to be baptized." Then she said, "What hour? Is 5 o clock ok?" The Lique mom said "but that is late and the water will be cold." and she responded, "but God wont let that happen to you. He will protect you once you become baptized." and then she said, "Ok vamos a hacer lo a las 5 and she was really happy. Then this sister promised that she would be at the baptism. It was way pretty crazy! My companion and I were just listening to what was happening the whole time. We were pretty shocked. It was like a miracle had just happened and it was funny because this sister said at the end "Elders, you´ve got a baptism this Saturday." haha. Its pretty amazing how much help the members can be to the missionaries. The investigators need friends in the church or it's almost impossible to stay strong in the church or to even decide to be baptized. When the missionaries work with the members, the spirit is always stronger and the investigators gain a much greater desire to act upon what they learn and to develop the desire to change their lives. We were able to see Soni this week and to teach with the Branch President. This helped a lot because President gives direct and good answers and Soni truly believes a lot of what he says. He has read 4 Ensigns and the Book of Mormon already and with the help of the Branch President, we were able to relieve his doubt about being baptized twice. We truly hope these teachings will be able to help him out, and help him make the decision to change his life around. He told us this week he is going to pray to find out if he needs to be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We really hope that he prays with faith and is willing to recieve his answer in the way the Lord gives it. Things are looking great for our zone this month of August and we're sure we will have a great month. Tuesday we are flying down to Santa Cruz for the Concilio and we hope that we can still have a good week of work even though we will be away for 3 days. I'm sure our trip will be great and I'm looking forward to be able to tell you how it went next week.  Hope you guys have an awesome week.   Love, Elder Christoffersen