Email from Monday, 16 August 2010

Hey everyone! Thanks for sending me those photos. Our back yard looks really nice. I can't wait to go swimming in the pool. This week has been really good. I learned a lot about faith this week. I'm really starting to understand what that word means. We have monthly baptism goals, and we have really been working hard towards our goal of 4 baptisms this month. I know we will reach our goal if we have faith and manifest our faith. We have 5 baptism dates lined up, and we have another that is pending. We have a family that we have been teaching and we finally were able to take out their birth certificates this week. The office had been closed for about 3 to 4 weeks, and we couldn't take out their birth certificates from another city, so we have the possibility to marry and baptize them this month. We are really working hard to get it all figured out. We will have to get them married in another city so that they can get married this month because here in Jesus de Otoro we have to wait 15 days. I'm sure really excited. All month we have been teaching them. They are really special. This will be the first family I have ever baptized here on the mission! We couldn't baptize the kid this Saturday. He drank coffee the day before his baptism. We are going to baptize him this Saturday. It's for sure. We bought him oatmeal to eat instead of coffee in the morning. He told us the other day that he hadn't drunken any coffee so I'm 100% positive he will be baptized this Saturday. I'm really learning a lot here in Honduras. I'm so glad I decided to serve a mission. This is the best thing I ever did. My companion from the MTC Elder Lloyd gave his very last testimony in a conference. He will be leaving in September. How strange, right? I saw his first testimony at the MTC and his last in Honduras. It was a really special moment for me. It made me realize how important the Atonement is to me. I don't truly know if I understand it. Its a subject I will have to study for the rest of my life. Well, we will find out today if we have transfers. I don't think we will be transferred this month. It would be odd if we got transferred. Well, you never know. Life is like a box of chocolates. My companion really wants to leave the area. He really isn't enjoying the mission right now. I try to help him but its difficult for him. He misses home. Well, I think I felt the same way my first few months on the mission. Well, I love you all. Thanks for everything.