February 18, 2013

(Elder Dredge's grandpa passed away on Valentine's Da,y only six weeks after his diagnosis of bone cancer.) 

Hey Everybody! So, I didnt know about Grampa until just now... I have tought the Plan of Salvation so much here and it always amazes me at how simple it all is, but at the same time how incredibly complicated and perfect and wonderful it is! I know that He is in a far better place and I wont lie, I am a litle jealous of him. Heh, He is already there with Christ and all of the rest of the family. I love him very much as well and I would love to be there for the funneral but I know that he would want me here. But something we have to always remember is that everything is in the hands of the lord. And I cant think of a better place for us to be!

Heh, Well they dont really do adresses here. But we live next to the Ariport in a place called Matrez on street 18. Good luck finding it. About out investigators, Edson is still good to get baptized this Saturday and he passed his interview!! Woohooo! But Alex and Erickson (16 years old) are teenagers...any way they missed church on Sunday but we already talked to them and we are going to have to delay the babtism. But it is better this way because now they know of the importance and seriousness of babtism. When we told them that we would have to delay it, I literally thought they would cry a little bit. It made me so happy to see that they had REAL desires to be babtized. They are basically LDS already, they even didnt start dating until they turned 16! heh! awsome! It will be on the 9th of Marco. We do babtisms every other week here because it takes so long to fill the font because we have to do it by hand. Which I got to do on Saturday for the other Elders. We have to throw this bucket 10ish feet down into a well and pull it back up with a metal wire. Then put the water into other buckets and carry it about 50 yards to the font. My job was to throw the bucket down and haul up the water. After a while my hand got really wet and soft so that wire made some nice blisters and cuts. But it was fun! Yeah, Elder Wilhelm is fine. I took his stiches out last night actually. Ok so I didnt shave shave my head. But it is super short.

So this week was crazy, as always. No more crazy accidents, But awesome just the same. We had most of our lessons fall through everyday. So most of our days was spent contacting and trying to get lessons with people. But we have met so many cool people! There is this one lady named Luzia and she is like the nicest lady ever. She has two daughters and her hsband and brother died. But she is very interested in the church and our next lesson is the Plano de Salvacao! I am super excieted for that one! She is the kind of lady that would be equivilent to like...the neighborhood mom, ya know? Its awesome to just knock on somebodys door and they just let you in and allow you to talk about the gospel with them! The people here are so nice and friendly! I do see some pretty sad stuff thought. There are a lot of crippled people that walk aroud. lots of them dont have arms or legs or walkd on their hands and knees or have contorted faces, and they are usually begging for money. I wish so bad to do something for them but we arent allowed to give them anything. It breaks my heart. But I also know that our Heavenly father Loves them specifically and wants the best for them. They are in his hands. I'm running out of time so I will make this quick. This experience has already changed me so much and made me aware of how little I know and how much we all have to learn in this life. Life here is simple. Nothing like I have seen before. But at the same time very complicated, just like the Gosplel. I love to be able to testify of Jusus Christ! One of my favorite lessons so far was one on Temples! I know Christ Lives and We are all in HIS hands and her carries us in times of trouble (footsteps poem) Love you all!!!