Baptizing a Family!

We were witnesses at the marriage (office of lawyer)

Dear Family,

What an incredible month of August!  I think that had to be my favorite month in all my mission!

Well, I think I had the highest point of my mission this week! J. and V. decided to get married and be baptized this week! We were going crazy early in the week with all the papers and documents to get a marriage ready and I´m not sure how many trips we made in a tuc tuc but there were a lot. It was a little tricky because J. had accidentally broke his ID card in a little pieces but everything turned out great. The cool thing is that the lawyer that prepared it all is member of the church and she was so nice and helpful in the whole process. On Wednesday we found time in the afternoon to go up to Mazate where the lawyer works. They were so, so happy as they were married and afterwards we went with them to eat some fancy Guatemalan cake. The days after we helped them get ready to be baptized Saturday and after a lot of prayers on their part, Heavenly Father answered them and they decided to be baptized. It was a wonderful service and I got to baptize V. and Elder Perdomo baptized J. I was sure to be extra careful because V. is 7 or 8 months pregnant (like when grandma was baptized). For their confirmation Sunday it was a little bit scary because J. had to run an errand in the morning and made it to the church as we finished the last verse of the hymn before the confirmation but it all turned out great and the Lord answered our prayers!

J. and V. with the sisters from our ward (they helped in the baptism service) and C. (who helped fellowship)

I really feel so so grateful to have been part of the lives of J. and V. and see them take step by step to become clean and free from all their past mistakes and feel the joy of forgiveness and obedience! It was kind of fun how we found ourselves with them and got to meet them. We were talking to somebody who really didn´t want much to do with us but I happened to ask at the end of the conversation who could be interested in our message. She pointed us to J.´s little ´torta´

 store and I decided I´d try a torta for the first time and meet J.  We had a fun little conversation with him finding out that he is half Jamaican and had a really cool history and had just moved to Santo Domingo with his wife and son. We got to know them and really saw the faith that they had in Jesus Christ even though they hadn´t learned much about him. We gave J. the Book of Mormon and were surprised when he read almost half of the book in just a week! I have just loved the chance to teach this family and see them receive blessing after blessing!

Eating ´tortas´in J.'s store.

I can´t tell you all the fun and awesome experiences we had this week but one cool this is that F., who was baptized a couple of weeks ago, started to help some of his friends learn about the church. We taught him last week about the need to share the gospel and spread the blessings that we have received with others. We talked to him about being a missionary just like us (because he is 18) and he has decided to prepare to be a missionary in a year! We will work hard with him and also with J. and V. so that we can accompany them to the Xela temple in a year!! F. is almost a missionary already because he took a friend to church this Sunday!

My time here in Santo Domingo has been such a huge blessing. I had the goal to help a family be baptized since I arrived and thanks to Heavenly Father´s help we saw it happen! I have gotten to see the gospel change so many lives and see the faith grow in new members of the church! I just love being a missionary!

Love,

Elder Jensen