Catch Up on letters!

Hello my dear parents, brothers and sisters,

First off I just want to let you know that Elder Cruz left and that I´m here in Linda Vista still with my new companion Elder Sarita from the Dominican Republic. He´s a good guy, and contrary to what the other missionaries thought, I did not become financial secretary. Take that other missionaries.

To answer your questions, yes the 9 year old GIRL was baptized and is doing well. Also Alba is the only member in her church and she was referral from some of the members that live on her street. She is extremely happy and said she has never felt so good before. It was so good to hear her say that she told her old pastor that she is now in the true church. With people like her sometimes we worry that they don´t understand certain things, but this shows that she has a strong testimony of what she is now a part of. Our ward mission leader is almost inactive himself. When he asks us who were going to work with to activate we are almost tempted to say ¨you¨, but we have decided that this wouldn´t help his activity in the church, what do you guys think? Yes the members help us when they can, but people are ALWAYS working here so it can be hard. I really respect the people that have callings here and serve faithfully because it would be really difficult. Our bishop works until 8 o clock every night Mon-Sat and still serves as a faithful bishop. Of course it makes somethings difficult but he does it as well as he can.

Anyway so I´m here in the area with Elder Sarita and I think we are going to have a really good 1 or 2 changes together. He has a really cool story of how he was inactive in the church for years, but then after a night of just thinking about where his life was at, he prayed to God to see what it was that he wanted him to do. He said he felt something very powerful that brought him to tears. 2 days later, the bishop and one of his counselors happened to pass by. They invited him to church and he said no. After he thought that this might be an answer to his prayers and showed up at church that Sunday. He explains that after that day he hasn´t missed a day of church.

Due to the experiences he has had he has a strong testimony and is willing to work. He only has 3 months time in his mission, but is doing well. He is a lot more confident than Elder Cruz so it will be an adjustment because he likes to talk a LOT more than my old companion, but we can work on that… haha. He is someone who likes to do things very well, but is very thoughtful, so sometimes he moves and thinks very slow. This will be good for me because sometimes I rush to get things done. I´m very excited to work with him in this change and I think we´ll have success.

As for the work, we are back to finding, which we will be doing a lot of in this week. I love you guys and hope all is well.

-Ben