My 1st Baptism

Date: August 01, 2011
Area: Jamaica, Queens
Companion - Sister Alvarado

Dear Family!

I can not fully express my joy that I have felt this week! I have to tell you now, because if I wait till the end I might explode of happiness!! Jose Martinez was Baptized!!! Ahhh okay Ill go into more detail later :) ( Hopefully the suspense will keep you reading :) )

Alright so this week was SUPERB :) So we have found what we would like to refer to as the "El parque de milagros" The park of miracles. We have found 3 new investigators this week. One of them name was another Jose. We were able to teach him in the park and he loved the lesson. He is the humblest little cute guy and he said. " If the lord permits I would love to continue meeting with you every monday and go to church with you on Sunday!" Ahh Just loved hearing that :)

We had this other guy named Hilmer. Hermana Alvarado and I were walking in the park and I saw this guy sitting on the bench so I said hi and began talking with him and I realized that he was this same guy who is usually drunk and gives us problems.. However his countenance was different... I almost did not recognize him. He was sober and so we were able to teach him. He loved the lesson and told us that he is different now and that he wanted to change and that he wants to follow christ. I then invited him to be baptized after the lesson and he accepted! So if all goes well we should be having another baptism at the end of August.

Ok so we were able to teach Jose his last two lessons that he needed to be baptized and he had his interview on Saturday! He is incredible! Ah I just love Jose! So his baptism was going to be on Sunday. He is SO excited!!!

Ok so on Sunday we went to go and pick up these three little girls Suley (10 yrs) Stephanie (8 yrs) and Ruth Mary (who is 11). When we got to their house they were not ready and were cleaning the house. So we helped them clean and then they one by one got ready for Church. So then we went to pick up Jose and we all walked to Church Together. I told the little girls that we were having a baptism. (jose) and that they were invited! They said that they would love to come so they asked their dad and he said that was perfectly ok :)

So sacrament meeting was neat! All of the missionarys had the opportunity to talk. The theme was on Member missionary work! We were able to get the members excited :) We all know that member missionary work as President Monson says is the best way! After that we had our classes and we brought the little girls to primary. They made a lot of friends :) After the three hours of Church was over the little girls all came running up to me and gave me the biggest hug and told me how much fun they had!

One of the girls said, " Can we come here Every sunday!?" Ahhh Ha I felt happiness fill me from head to toe! Of COURSE you can!! Ha so then we all went over to the other church building for the baptism. It was incredible and honestly words can not describe the feeling of joy of being able to bring one soul unto christ! Just like Christ says "The worth of Souls is great in the sight of god! " ( D&C 18:10, 15-16)

Jose was able to bear his testimony afterwards and he says that he feels like he is starting a new life and that this was the BEST decision that he made!

I am SO happy! The little girl stephany said Can I be baptized?!? she said Can I be baptized next week?!? :) Ha I told her how about in 2 sundays :) hehe They are adorable and loved every minute of Sunday!

Well my time is up! But this gospel is True. In this gospel we can find TRUE happiness! I love this Work! I love my Mission!

I love you Family!!

Hermana GRay