Hurricanes y Miracles (and Transfers)

¿Que lo que Familia?

First, happy birthday (last week) to Shih·Ping and Grandpa, and happy birthday to Esme and Anna this next week! Woohoo! I hope that you all had or have a great birthday. Also, congrats to Owen for finishing his mission, it is crazy to think of him being home.

This week was different, but also very good.  We had the hurricane on Thursday and we stayed inside all day and also Friday morning. I think all of the missionaries here were ready to head out after being couped up for almost two days. We studied, made banana bread (since we still could use our oven), and tried to play games (I say tried because uno with two people isn´t nearly as great as it sounds). Luckily, the hurricane didn´t do any damage where we are. I´m so grateful for that, the only thing was that the roads were extra wet for a few days. The weather decided to make up for the hurricane by being really hot this week. We worked extra hard this weekend and had nine people come to church this week. My first week we didn´t have anyone come, so we´ve come a long way since week 1. Heavenly Father has definitely blessed us. I´ll be staying for another transfer in Primavera 1 and I couldn´t be happier. 

The most exciting news we have is that we might have a baptism this week! The daughter of the Haitian family we are teaching is ready to be baptized and we are hoping that she can do just that this Saturday. All she has to do is have her baptismal interview and then we have to get permission from Presidente Castillo because she is 12 years old. We are teaching M´s whole family but for right now it is only M who can be baptized. We´re hoping that her parents can be baptized too, but that will involve them getting their passports, visas, and documentation to be married; it might be a little while before that happens. We are going to keep working on this though, we´ll get there.

We also have another great family, the Famila P, who is going to be baptized the beginning of October. We are teaching the parents, R y I, and two of their three daughters, I (age 13) and M ( age 19). We had an amazing lesson with them and a member family on Wednesday and they agreed to get married, stop drinking coffee, and be baptized. They are an amazing family. Every time we come to teach them they invite all of their neighbors, family, and anyone who passes by to come listen. It makes me and Hermana Lynch laugh.  I think I´ve already gained ten pounds just from teaching them because they feed us every time we teach them. The boyfriend of M also started coming to the lessons and is really interested. They all came to church  this Sunday.  R has told us that he always had a hard time waking up to go to church but since he has come to our church he has been the one waking up his family and has a ton of energy on Sundays. Yes! This is the kind of thing missionaries love to hear. It has been amazing to see the changes and the happiness that has come into their lives in the few short weeks since we met them, but I know that happiness and peace comes from reading the Book of Mormon and the gospel.

Phew, sorry for the long email. Also, sorry I couldn´t write yesterday.  There was a big power out while they fixed a main power line in La Vega. So instead we went shopping, and played games in the church. We also to a member´s house to learn how to cook Dominican food and drinks and it was a lot of fun, I´m excited to show you guys all of the things I´ve learned to cook when I get home. I hope you all have a great week and that school and every thing else goes well. I love you guys all so much!

Hermana Schriever