March 3, 2014

This week, once again, went so fast!! Really not a whole lot has happened. Carlos still has his date set for this Thursday! But his sister, Ingrid, told us that as she was reading and praying, she received an answer that she needs to wait until she goes back to Columbia this weekend and get baptized with her husband. That was so perfect. Definitely an answer from the Lord. She keeps talking about how they are going to take the lessons together. But she also said that she knows this is what she needs to do so if her husband doesn't want to get baptized, she's still going to. I think it’s so great though. The biggest reason they were interested in the first place was because their mom and step-dad talked to them about eternal families. AND the best part is...we finalized the program last night and Carlos wants his step-dad to baptize him!! This is so cool because Brother Bradley is a recent convert of less than a year!!! HOW GREAT!! I just love it.

So we were able to finally see one of our potentials and he's like this famous Bachatan musician.. haha It’s the best. And he is now a new investigator!! But also, he was wearing this really sweet leather bracelet and it had a metal piece at the top and it was the head of some weird dog/dear/ram type of animal and when I complimented it he just took it off and gave it to me and told me it was a gift! Umm... It was the greatest present ever. Members give us things all the time, but this was like super special. It was so cool!

But we are doing so well with working more with our members. EVER MEMBER A MISSIONARY! It’s so incredibly true. Almost all of our investigators right now are member finds or member referrals! I love being able to work with everyone in our ward. We even are having less-actives feeding us which is so great to be able to go over and get to know them and commit them to come to church! 

But idk if I mentioned this earlier, but our ward is one that a Spanish branch has been dissolved into. This happened last March I think and it actually caused (or gave an excuse) for a lot of Latino members to go inactive. So yesterday was our first Sunday with a Spanish sacrament! We now have two sacraments and all the Latinos meet in the relief society room. They all seem to be so happy. There are definitely a lot of different opinions but you will never make everyone happy. I think it’s better this way. Our area is 60% Spanish people so I think this will really help getting more of our investigators to church.

Other than that, everything is great! I’m loving it here in FL. It’s started to get little warmer. Winter here lasts for about 2 months.. haha. But it’s great. Today is Hermana Fisi's birthday so we are meeting with the other sisters in our district and going out for Chic'filet and frozen yogurt! 

I love you all so much and hope you are all having a great week!!! (:

CON MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO AMOR!

Hermana Halverson

Zone conference 2-19-14 (Tara is fourth from left)