Upcoming baptism(s) and working on a coconut plantation!

Hello All!

I hope you are doing well and that Heavenly Father is blessing you abundantly!  He sure is blessing us here!  Monday the 25^th was a good day.  We had a bit of an epic fail of a zone activity where we went to the beach and got rained out, so we went to the local museum instead—soaking wet.  At night we got a couple of lessons in, and one to the Habala family.  It was Marivel’s birthday, so we got invited to dinner.  There we found out that not only Marivel wants to be baptized (finally), but so does their mom, Elma, who has been coming to church recently!  Say what!?!  Man, I was so happy!  We taught Elma on Wednesday and got a soft goal date for the 27^th.  Tuesday we went to Dipaculao, as Elder Hedman’s companion, Elder Emelio, has back problems and can’t work.  So Elder Hedman could get out of the house, I worked with him while Elder Anasario stayed at the house.  It was a good day and it’s always good to be with Elder Hedman.  Wednesday was good, but my comp was having a bit of a hard day, a hard time staying positive.  But we had good things happen!  We came to a point where we had nowhere else to go, and while we stood there for a second, I remembered an old contact I had back with Elder Paredes and so we tried her.  Tina was her name, and she readily accepted us into her home and we were able to share a good portion of Lesson 1.  Cool! We taught Arlene, which went ok as well.  I already mentioned that we taught Elma, and she feels like her baptism is close.  We asked her to pray about the date.  We reviewed with Marivel the baptismal interview questions, and her only concern was about Thomas S. Monson, as she doesn’t know a ton about him but we left a Liahona article of his for her to read.   

Thursday we had a fun service project at a coconut plantation! 

I don’t know the English translation of bukohan, so that will have to do!  That was fun, then we ate lunch on a banana leaf! 

In the afternoon we had a new investigator, “Baby”, and set a return appointment with her and her husband for Saturday.  We’ve started teaching the neighbors of our recent convert, Linda.  It’s kind of fun, as when we get there we teach a crowd of 7-8 who kind of stand there and listen.  This won’t last forever, but it’s kind of fun right now!  They’re interested and answer questions and understand the message, so no complaints!  We’ll see who will really become progressing in the coming days and weeks. 

Friday Elder Hedman worked with me in my area as it was Marivel’s interview!  We had some decent work as well!  We had a good lesson with Apple, a relatively new investigator.  We finished the message of the Restoration, but not without a drunk member of another church trying to debate with us.  Be we maintained our composure and the Spirit, thank goodness!  We taught our little returning young man, Wendy and he is still the man.  He’s the only one in his house, full of members, who listens to us and comes to church.  Marivel passed her interview with flying colors.  She just wants this new life, this fresh start, so bad.  We also taught Elma, who has a baptismal date for the 27^th.  She “borrowed” my baptismal interview questions card to review!  Saturday we had zone goal setting and we are going with a back to basics approach.  Brother TonTon worked with us in the afternoon.  Funny story—while we were looking for Tatay Marcos, this small, sandy ledge by a river gave way and I almost fell in.  It was nuts!

(And he wasn’t able to finish the letter because he had to catch a bus in a ½ hour and he wasn’t done with his reports yet)