Salud y Bautismo

25 Jan 2010

Dear Family,

Thank you for the support that you give me as I continue on this mission. This week, as I´ve told you, I have gone on this diet to do a physical study. I´ve been very surprised with the results. This week I have felt better than I have felt in a long time. It is possible that I don´t have a parasite after all and that it has just been a reaction of my body against eating a diet full of fats and oils. This past week I have been eating mainly rice, boiled or grilled meat, crackers, and fruit. And by eating so, I´ve had a lot more energy. I´m thinking about asking the members to continue serving me like that. I did the other studies this morning and I´ll have the results next week. But, I now have a greater testimony of the Word of Wisdom, in that eating grains, fruits, and vegetables, with little meat really does help the body.

This week, it felt like we were hardly in our area, but we had a lot of success anyways. On Wednesday, we were surprised with interviews with the President. I wanted to ask him in the interview who is going to leave Jardines out of E´Cuberos and me and he beat me to it. He started out by telling me that I have done some really good things in Jardines the past two months and that he think he´ll send me somewhere else next transfer. He scared me by saying, “I´ll think I´ll make you a…I won´t go into that yet.” He´s done that kind of cliffhanger statements before with me, so I think it is something he normally does. I´m afraid the next words are “zone leader.” I don´t think I´m quite up to that yet. Recently, the zone leaders have been averaging 40-50 lessons per week and it is assumed that they do all of their contacts. I´ve never been able to push myself enough to have such success. I feel bad that I still haven´t even come close to doing all of the contacts I should in a transfer. But, as I´ve always said, “I´ll go where you want me to go, Oh Lord, I´ll be what you want me to be.” Then on Thursday we had a great zone conference and divisions on Friday.

But, most important was that on Sunday, we were able to witness the baptism of Yanina Escobar. It went really well. She is the best friend of Soledad Leyva and they supported one another a lot as Soledad became active again and Yanina started the conversion process. Yanina often prayed asking to know if the church is true and always felt a peace that helped her sleep, but didn´t recognize it as a response of God. But, after it happened time after time, and a little explanation from us, she realized that God was answering her prayers. She loved coming to church and going to our piano lessons. I have found that even though they don´t really learn much in our piano lessons, it helps the converts make friends with other youth in the ward.

This baptism was a baptism for the youth. Jonathan, our ward mission leader who has sent in his papers to go on a mission, directed the service. Daniel, who is also preparing to go on a mission, gave the first talk. Soledad, her friend, gave the second. And we sang “Count your many blessings,” the hymn Yanina was learning to play on the piano. Diana and another friend gave the prayers. And my companion did the baptism.

The baptism was especially good for her parents to see. Julio has a baptismal date for the 7th of February, but her mom has been on the edge. I feel that the Mom felt more of the spirit during the baptism and saw the joy on Yanina´s face. At the end, and for the first time in my mission, we asked Yanina to give her testimony. She did so, thanking everyone for their help. And said, “And I know this is the true church.” It was simple, but pure. Rita, her mom, said that when we go on Tuesday, she will have a lot of questions for us.

I wish we could have had the baptism of her with her parents together, but we felt it was necessary to do it now to help the progress of her parents.

We also had a new investigator in church—a 91 yr. old woman named Aurora. We found her about two weeks ago and I didn´t think much of her. We went back a second time and she wanted a healing blessing. We gave the blessing and returned another day. She felt better and was excited to come with us to church. A member with a car came with us to pick her up. When we got there, we found out that her son is a friend of a member, so his wife sat with Aurora the entire time. I´m not sure how much she understood, but she felt really good and said that she might want to come back next week and the week after that. She accepted yesterday a baptismal date for the 13th.

I know this work is true. I know this is the true church. I know that the Spirit leads and guides us when we look for him. And God, as our father, will always love us.

With love,
Elder Drake Ranquist