Monday, April 5, 2010

So I am now in Gainesville, Florida..." Home of the Gators"... this place rocks! I am in Gainesville 2nd ward and it is, by reputation... kind of a dreaded ward.... Elder Huff is still my Zone Leader and he told me that the ward is against missionaries and it is hard to have success here because it's such a rich area... So I got here on Thursday and my companion is Elder Izatt ( by the way he goes home right after i do)... I was asking him about the area and he said that we don't have a lot going. There is a part member family that we have been working with so we can start there. And start there we did. His name is Michael and he is a doctor and he is freaking sweet! We had a pretty good lesson with him and his daughter who is turning 8 is getting baptized this Saturday and he set a date to get baptized with her at her baptism... so that was a good start!

Then I asked Elder Izatt if we had anyone else and he said these Haitian guys came to church on Sunday. So we went to see Pascal and Daniel. Daniel was not there.. so we talked with Pascal and it turns out he was so freakin' sweet... they hadn't even invited him to be baptized.... he and I hit it off really well and then the Spirit took over. I don't even remember what I said to him and I quoted and used scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Bible that I had read over a bunch of times and never even knew what was in them... the Spirit turned my hand to the proper scriptures and every one was exactly what Pascal needed to hear... he then poured his soul out to us and told us all the sins he had committed and he wondered if he could be cleansed and we testified that he could. We committed him to be baptized on Sunday after conference... so conference came and he did now show up. The baptism was scheduled for 6:30 and at six Izatt and I drove over to his house to find no one home... I was getting worried. We got back at the church at 6:30 and the Bishop was there and everyone, and I knew that if we were to have success in this area I had to make a good impression with the ward at the start or it just wouldn't work. So I went outside the church and knelt down and prayed and as I was praying I got a call from Pascal saying that his car had broken down but he got it working and they were almost there... Daniel came and told us that he wanted to be baptized too and Raphael, Pascal's girlfriend, came who was against the church at first.... but Pascal got baptized and confirmed right there and then. The Ward that I thought was going to be horrible, because of all the stories I had heard jumped on Pascal, Daniel and Raphael... the Relief Society invited Raphael... and she had a change of heart about our church... Afterwards I called Huff to tell him the miracle and he was shocked that the ward was so helpful. I asked him who had served in the ward before me and as far as he could remember most of the missionaries that had served in this ward for a couple of years were all lazy missionaries... this ward was a gold mine and nobody even knew it... anyways I love you all and here is my new address...

7901 w. University ave #9

Gainesville, FL 32607

p.s. I got your package mom and I had completely forgotten that Sunday was going to be Easter until Pascal told us how happy he was to be baptized on Easter Sunday, His name means Easter in Creole... love you