The work continues in Stop and Mabini...

TyBlog9.10.2012

Hello everyone.  This week has been way busy. We had the usual good times with basketball and a family home evening last week. Elder Delos Santos knows some good new games and it was fun. We also got a new investigator that we are preparing for baptism.  He is the little brother of one of our other investigators. They are part member and the oldest brother is a member and a future missionary. So this week we have been very busy trying to work on all of our people that we are preparing for baptism in Stop and we also worked in Mabini all of Thursday and Saturday night because we were so busy in Stop. Church on Sunday - we went to both and then had to travel for a baptism interview because my comp is district leader then get back for our appointment with the Jepiala family that live by the river. I love them so much and they love the gospel. So we will see what happens with everyone. Unfortunately one of our investigators with a baptismal date was sick and didn't come to church, so now they need to come four more weeks in a row before we can baptize them. But, I have learned to do my best and then, like Nate said, “just come what may and love it”, because we can't force people and everything doesn't always go as planned or the best way we want it to.  It was way rainy last week and way muddy.  It is fun going around and teaching everyone - I just hike on muddy dirt trails and through sugar cane and over hills and through rivers, so the nature is way cool and I love this place and I love these people and need to enjoy each day because my time is limited here.  We hope to get some of our focus investigators baptized this transfer.  Today was a hassle - we went to Escalante with a bunch of our investigators to help them get papers for marriage. A less-active we are rescuing and his live-in wants to be baptized so we got their marriage papers and hope to get them married soon and baptize the sister and the brother is preparing to go to the temple. We had other investigators that came with us too to try to get married from that family and also others but we learned that they can't get married because they had previous spouses.  In order to get a divorce here you need an annulment which is expensive and they can't afford so it was sad.  They were disappointed but the good news is since it is such a common problem here, according to the new rules they can still be baptized and be forgiven according to their circumstances. This week we will continue to focus on our same people and hope to expand our work too. I love you all and miss you and I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and true happiness comes from living by His teachings and using the atonement to receive strength and forgiveness. I know that the atonement is infinite and we can always repent and come back so I invite you all to come unto Christ and enjoy these great blessings. Good luck this week I hope to get some letters from you all.
Love Elder Mifflin aka Nature Man