Te Damos Senor Nuestras Gracias

Saludos familia!

I can't believe how fast August went by, which means that it is September and I need to wish Grandpa and Shih-Ping happy birthday! I hope you both have a wonderful birthday and a wonderful week! This week felt like a quick week in and of itself and and I feel like there is a lot of good things to say, so here goes....

This week we had the wonderful opportunity to welcome President Nelson to the Republica Dominicana, I believe it was the first time a prophet has visited the DR. We got to hear from him and Elder Renlund during two conferences, one specifically for missionaries and one for the members in the Carribean. Both were wonderful and I felt like we got General Conference early. We heard a lot about the importance of loving the people and being obedient, as missionaries and as members. One of my favorite parts of the conference was President Nelson's talk, which he did in Spanish. We went to the conference with one of the people we are teaching, R and her son L, and I could see she was impressed to see the prophet speaking in her own language. He spoke about the blessings of the temple and also we are all able to receive those blessings. Elder Renlund spoke a little about this too and he shared a story of how he was almost hit by a car after his baptism. He said he remembered thinking as an 8 year old, maybe it would have been better if he had been hit, becuase that day he was perfectly clean, but later coming to realize that as children of God we all have the opportunity to become clean and free of guilt every week as we take the Sacrament. We felt the conference and R told us she loved it and that they had even answered a few of the questions she had had. Overall, it was a very special experience. 

Hermana Alvarado and I have been working a lot recently with the P Family and we have been focusing on working with our ward, which has been such a blessing. We are starting to see how the members are wanting to work with us more and that is always a rewarding experience. We have a newer bishop in our ward so we went to visit him and his wife and after talking with them for a few minutes they asked us how they can be better missionaries. Hermana Alvarado and I were thrilled to be able to answer a few of their questions and talk about how we can work mroe with the ward. I love the ward here in Los Reyes and am always (pleasantly) surprised with the desire the people have here to share the gospel. Hermana Alvarado adn I both feel very blessed to be here. 

We are planning on having a noche de hogar (FHE) today with R and his family and a few families from the ward and we also have interviews with President Cowan and his wife tomorrow. I always get excited to have interviews because I feel like I always get good advice. 

I hope that you have all had a good week, I love you all! Enjoy the (hopefully) cool weather and I can't wait to here from you all soon!