Baptism of Karime!

Hello Family,                                Monday Nov. 14th, 2016

Cool napkin

Cool floweJust letting you know that I have a short time to write today....so sorry that my letter is not going to be very long this week.

River in Mina!!

So.....yeah....seven weeks left. What?!?!?! Sometimes I feel like the time is flying by....but there are other moments when the days drag on and on (normally when our appointments fall through and it is raining, and we are soaked). But normally I am so focused and occupied with everything that we have to do, and everyone that we have to visit, that I wake up, and realize that it's Friday or Saturday....and the week is gone! Normally if we have a baptism, the week goes by fast. Sundays after church are usually the longest day of the week. I don't know why, but almost always our appointments fall through on Sunday. But it's my favorite day of the week because we get to go to two sacrament meetings.

So....the story about Jonathan's baptism last week. So, we had been teaching Jonathan for several weeks with his baptismal date for the 5th of November. Everything was good to go until the Thursday before his baptism we went and visited him. When we showed up he came out and told us that he wasn't going to get baptized. We were a little shocked, and didn't believe him at first. But he was being serious. He said it was because he was baptized four months ago in another church. We sat down with him and began teaching him. I don't remember what we were teaching when all of a sudden he turned to us and asked ''Do you think I should get baptized?'' It caught us off guard, but we said of course he should. When he asked us why, we told him because it was the true church. He told us that he didn't know if it was true, but wanted to know. We explained to him how to get his answer from Heavenly Father through prayer. That Heavenly Father would answer him through the Holy Ghost. Then we explained what the Holy Ghost feels like. We left him with the commitment to pray that night and ask God if it was all true....or if we just made it all up. On Friday we went back, and on arriving I asked him how his prayer went. He answered ''Oh....yeah....I'm getting baptized. You guys are going to baptize me tomorrow....right?'' I was like slow down buddy, and I asked him what had changed his mind. He told us that when he prayed, Heavenly Father, through the Holy Ghost answered his prayer and that he was ready to be baptized. It shocked us but we were super happy. He was baptized on Sunday. He shared his testimony in church as well. It was great!!

On Saturday this week we baptized Karime!!!! She was sooo excited. The ward really helped us out with the baptismal program, and all the young women prepared a special musical number. It turned out really nice.

We are teaching a ton of people right now. I know I dont really share a lot about the people that we are teaching, but I'll give a brief summary of some of them.

Hermano Luis. He is a great guy, about 40 years old and lives with a member. They are not married, so we have been in the process of getting him divorced from his last wife so that they can get married and he can get baptized. On Thursday we went to the....Civil Registry...I think that's what it's called...to finalize his divorce papers. And on Sunday we planned their wedding date for December 17th!!!! He will be getting baptized on that same day!! He finished reading the Book of Mormon last week!!! (First investigator to finish the Book of Mormon before baptism) and now he wants to read the Pearl of Great Price before Dec. 17th.

We are also teaching a single mom named Carmen and her 11 year old son Micheal. They have come to church three times now, and are progressing a ton. The ward has really stepped up in helping us out with her. The relief society visit her once a week, and she comes to all of the activities. We are currently helping her open up her own buisness selling Moharras Fritas (fried fish). She is very excited for that. We invited her to baptism last week, but she feels like she needs more time before making a decision. We are okay with that because she is really changing her entire life.

The little old less-active lady that we were visiting.....turns out that she is not a member. We searched for her record (because the bishop said that he didn't remember her getting baptized) and turns out that she is an investigator. She is hilarious...always talking about how we need to be careful because the girls are going to sneek up on us and kidnap us. We always get a good laugh with her. She has a baptismal date for the 26th of this month.

Elvis is the dad of a family of five. Him and his wife just got married today (we are going there right after this)!!!!! They have not come to church yet, but on Friday Elvis told us that after his wedding, his next goal is to get all of his family baptized in a church....we were very excited to hear that. We are going to keep working closely with him and his family. The Bishop is helping us out with them.

On Mondays we teach Fernando. I told you guys about him last week.

We have another investigator in Paquetal that has come to church twice now. His name is Roberto and is 17 years old. We teach him in the home of another member. he is progressing reapidly ands tomorrow we are going to invite him to baptism!!!

Anyways....it continues to rain here. But that's alright because at least its not very hot.

This week I have been reading in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testement. For my whole mission I've studied the great missionaries from the Book of Mormon, so I decided to take some time to study the great missionaries of the Bible. The apostle Paul is amazing!!!! The Spirit that he had with him everywhere he went was so strong. He had no fear....of anything. He was beaten by the Jews and bound by the Romans, and then stood in front of them and testified of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. That is all he taught...that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. With that testimony he converted thousands of people. I have one chapter left before Romans.

I have also been studying Christlike attributes. Humility, Diligence, Obedience, Charity and Love, Patience etc. I have really felt guided by the Spirit in my personal study time every morning in receiving revelation for my personal needs. I have also started dedicating an hour every night to reading the scriptures as well. I feel like I have to read it all again before I come home.

I Love the mission, and am sad that it is coming to an end. But I am excited for the work that I can do in 7 weeks. I am so close to my baptismal goal that I set at the beginning of my mission. We'll see if I can make it. I'm pretty sure I get it done:)

We are #1 in the Mission!

I love you all, and can't wait to see you!!!!

Love,

Elder Cavenee