Dear Mom,

 

So to start out what happened this week, we have an investigator who is finally getting closer to baptism! Her name is Yerlin. I can't remember if I've talked about her before. Her husband is a very less-active guy from Puerto Rico. His family is a very active family back in Puerto Rico. Yerlin is open to anything religious. We just taught her last week about the Plan of Salvation. Carlos is the husband and he loves relearning about the church. As we were teaching the Plan of Salvation he kept bringing up things that he remembers. It's great to see him love to relearn about the Gospel! Yerlin was really into learning about the Plan of Salvation. She had basic ideas about where we came from and where we're going. She was very interested in learning what it was like in the Pre-Mortal Existence and the Spirit World. The lesson really got cool when we talked about Celestial Marriage and the Celestial Kingdom. We were talking about how amazing the Celestial Kingdom will be and how it has been our end goal before we were even here on Earth. I then brought up how we need to follow everything in the Gospel including baptism. She asked about what if she had already been baptized in another church. I reminded her about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ and how we only have the authority to baptize. When she said she understood it was then the perfect moment. I asked her if she would be baptized. She said yes very enthusiastically! It was an amazing experience and the Spirit was definitely there. That's what every missionary looks forward to. Yerlin said she wanted to wait until Carlos' mom came to visit them in November because she's flying to the States to drop off her son at the MTC. This is all a great set-up to get Carlos and Yerlin a very happy family in the Gospel. We'll be teaching them again tonight about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm very excited to teach them!

 

Last night was a pretty good night. We went over to a less-active members house. He and his wife are pretty well off. They have all sorts of nice stuff in their house. They have a big expensive looking couch, a big TV, he has an android version of the i-pad, and she has an i-pad. They also have a flat screen TV over their kitchen table, haha! She also has an i-phone. Nice cars out front. It's just not a huge house. Anyways, we went over there to share with them a scripture and try to get them to come to church and help us out in missionary work. They ended up feeding us. It was an amazing dinner! She cooked this fish called swai fish with a very good sauce made with onions, bell peppers, and tomato sauce. For a good side dish, she made shrimp in a different sauce that was also very good. She made a lot of it too! It was hard to finish because there was so much of it, but it was delicious! Yesterday at church, they also made a couple Tres Leches cakes to end the church meetings. Amazing! It was gone so fast. Everyone loved it, especially the Relief Society. Great!

 

Not much else happened this week. I'll have to get some pictures going this week. There's a street I drove by this last week called Linden St.

  

The temple dedication thing sounds pretty fun! I wish I could go.

 

I would love to go to one of those diners, but I've heard they're pretty expensive. I don't know for sure. Sometimes I have to be careful when hearing something in the mission. Some missionaries will say something small, and it'll just take off. For example, there's this place called Aldi that we go shopping at. They have very cheap stuff and it's actually pretty good quality. I've heard for the longest time that they only accept cash. So we always go to a bank before we go shopping. The other Elders at our apartment told us that they were talking to a member and found out that Aldi does accept credit card. That whole 'Aldi only accepts cash' probably only started because there maybe was one time when Aldi's credit card machine was down. I don't know, but now I know they do credit card. So I have to be careful sometimes. Maybe the diners really aren't all that expensive.

 

I can't believe Luke's farewell already came. He still has a couple more weeks. That's pretty crazy! I'm so excited for Luke. Mexico City is going to be an awesome mission! I'm more excited to be able to talk with him in Spanish. That'll be the best part seeing him when he comes back. I can't believe Kenny's already back! That seemed to go by so fast. I can't wait to see him again and Josh. 

 

Every once in a while, a missionary will have a couple talks on CD. We listened to one the other day from General Conference in April 2010 I think from Elder Holland. I remember one really good quote. He said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. So, watch your step." Awesome!

 

Q of the W:

1. How do you say "I love you" in Spanish?

 

"Te quiero." It literally means, I want you, which I know, is a little strange. But that's just the way Spanish is! It makes perfect sense in Spanish and really does have the meaning of "I love you." You can also say, "Te queremos" which means 'we love you'.

2. How are you doing with your contacts and Diovan? (need more yet?)

 

Good and good. :)

3. General Conference is coming...where will you watch it?

 

Probably at the Scotch Plains chapel in English. I'm so excited for it!! I love General Conference!

 

By the way, I'm with a couple missionaries (good friends now!) that love music. Can you send some of my piano music stuff in my next package?? Like 100 years, Apologize, all those songs and stuff. By the way mom, I'm coming to absolutely love music, especially the piano. You're going to have to give me piano lessons when I come home and teach me everything you know, like the chords and all that stuff. I want to know everything!

 

Love you mom! Talk to you soon! Another idea for b-day present if you haven't figured out something: a little portable electric dictionary or something. My previous companion had one that was really cool that he got off amazon.com I think. Just an idea, I don't really need one. But anything is great! Love you lots. Te quiero!

 

-Justin