28 May 2019: Unspeakable Joy!

Hola todos!

This week was a great week. We had Rick's baptism on Saturday, which was a really great experience for everyone. He has now joined the church and made that covenant with God, and is united even more with his wife. Jazmin, one of the first people I baptized in this area, attended Rick's baptism, and bore her testimony while Rick was getting ready. That was really really special for me. I started getting choked up during that.

We had a lady named Carol come to church with her member friend, and her friend, Sister De Graff came up to us at church, and said "Do you want to add someone to your teaching pool?" Thats what members say when they want us to teach their friends. We had a really good lesson with her that night, and we are having dinner and a lesson with her tonight with the De Graff family as well.

We had a funny experience on Saturday. A really short homeless guy came sprinting up to us with a really really raspy voice, screaming "WAIT! I LOVE MORMON MISSIONARIES!!" He said "Write this down" so I wrote down this code he told me that he had written down in his super battered hard copy of the Book of Mormon. Then he gave both of us really tight hugs, then ran off screaming "I LOVE MORMON MISSIONARIES! I LOVE GOD!" 

Then he showed up to church the next day...and my companion spoke in sacrament meeting, so the guy knew one of the speakers!

Friday night we got heckled out by a super high, super drunk guy that I had previously met with Elder Hernandez. That made Elder Loutensock mad, because he was screaming some really lewd comments at us, which wasnt nice to hear. Oh well, it happens sometimes.

So that was fun!

Miracle of the week:

One little thing that has always been a dream for me in my mission, was to teach a whole family in Spanish. Well last Saturday, we were having a really difficult day of proselyting, and not having any success, and right before we went home, I saw this guy get out of his car with a few young girls that were probably his daughters, and as I was plugging things in, and we were planning to head home, because we had to walk home, because on Saturdays we dont use our car. I decided on the spur of the moment, I said "Let's go talk to him" so we did, and had a really solid contact with him. We set up a time to come back. 

Fast forward to this past Saturday morning, we go to the return appointment, that he had rescheduled with us, and he invited us into his home. We met his wife, and then they start setting up a few chairs around their couch. And out comes two teenagers, and their two toddlers. Here was the family I have been praying to find since I got my mission call last April. We had an amazing lesson with the Valentín family. The Spirit was so strong, and you could see the Spirit working on the family. Everyone was participating, and we invited them to be baptized, which they kind of dodged, but if I could have taken a picture of that lesson, that would have been amazing, because it fulfilled a mission dream of mine. And just thinking of how I found Brother Valentín, and how grateful they were that we taught them and brought the Spirit into their home. We taught them the message of the Restoration, and taught them about the Book of Mormon. Even though they didnt accept a baptismal invitation, they all did accept a copy of El Libro De Mormón, and the invitation to pray about it. The whole family participated in that lesson. It was truly a dream come true for me. 

Yesterday we called Brother Valentín to determine a time to come back, and we set up a time for us to come again, and the best part of that call was that he said that they have been reading the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we invited them to read and have been praying about it as well!!!! A whole family is keeping their commitments!!! The joy that I feel from just writing about these experiences is almost indescribable. This Gospel, this mission, this Church, is all about JOY! If you arent feeling JOY at church, reading your scriptures, saying your prayers, or otherwise, do those things in the way that you feel JOY. 

Why? Because WHY WOULDN'T you want to feel JOY everyday. 

Have a JOYFUL day!

Elder Lovell

Pics

Bike selfies featuring Elder Loutensock

Rick at his baptism, and Brother Chamberlain, a member of the bishopric, and a recently reconverted member himself, baptized Rick. He started getting choked up in the font as he was baptizing Rick, and as well when he welcomed Rick into the ward at the end of the service. That was really touching for me personally.