JD's letter from August 20, 2012

I'm not even going to make excuses any more.  I have, again, been horrible at posting Justin's letters. Today, I apologized to him and re-committed to doing a better job.  I feel like I owe this to him as this is his way of communicating with most of you while he is out--a way to write one letter and still let his friends and family know how he is doing...as long as his dad does his part. I need to do a better job and I'm sorry.  Here is JD's letter from August 20, 2012.

Hola Familia y amigos! What are you all up to? Well this week was pretty good; there were a lot of good things that happened. Well beginning with what happened this week, Tuesday was a good day because we had this little wedding party for Alvaro and his wife. Alvaro was baptized last Sunday, and he and his wife were married on the Friday before the last Sunday (almost a week and a half ago). And then we wanted to make a special moment for them, and so we (mostly the members) threw a little party for them. With a lot of help from the members, it was a success. Of course we didn´t participate much with us being missionaries, but we took pictures with them, ate a little bit, some investigators came too, it was good. And then on Friday we had another activity with the youth though. It was directed to the families of the youth because there are a lot of youth here without their families. So we did this open house activity, where we broke the youth up into teams, gave them a topic in the strength of youth pamphlet and then they were stationed in a room and they taught their parents about what they learn in the church. Well the purpose was so that these families that don’t really know about the church and have bad thoughts about it can see that it is actually something good for their kids. And that it creates opportunities for us to teach the families. We had some success, not as much as we wanted, but it created opportunities for us and especially for the youth to help their families out. So that was Friday and it was awesome, and a dear friend of mine, Edgar who is an 18 year old in the branch, got his mission call and is going to Villa Hermosa, Mexico (touching Guatemala). He is sooo excited and we were soo excited for him. He has 2 years as a member and is a strong kid because his family doesn’t really support him, but he is strong. And then Natalie was baptized on Saturday, she was happy. Her husband baptized her and he was changed after that. And something also that happened was that Maria is an investigator and she wasn´t wanting to really change, but her cousin that lives with her, wanted her to come to church. And as well, she didn´t want to stop smoking. And so we would put goals with her, but she didn´t progress. On Thursday, she was saying that she cannot stop smoking, we were crushed and then we left without any reason to return anytime soon because it was disappointing. Well we prayed for her and then the next day we got this impression to go back and visit her. Well we did, and she said that she hadn´t smoked that day and wants to change. She wanted to be baptized the soonest possible so she will be baptized this coming Sunday. I was shocked but grateful that prayers are answered. I learned something that every trial can be resolved, if you let God resolve. Well when a trial comes, pray and fast if you need to and God will send peace if it be a blessing or a feeling. And that was special for us. I had a great week and I am ready for another one. I love you all and I hope you all have a marvelous week. Take care 

Love,

Elder Justin Powell