Shout Out Elder Donaldson

Here is this week's real email!

Well, Buenos Mañana! I had a realization that "buenos días" is actually "good day," not "good morning" directly translated. So to that, we say: Buenos Mañana.

This week, we were walking and we turned the corner of the building to go into the town park, and we said, "Hey, we should call Peter." We go talk to a dude, and then we are done and look over, and Peter is just on the bench next to us out of nowhere. We have no idea how he got there. Then we went over, and we started talking to him and taught him. Then we invited him to Greg's baptism on Saturday, and he said, "Who's baptizing him?" Elder Teuscher is. Then he asked if I could baptize him, and I said, "Yeah," and we invited him to be baptized on October 8th. He proceeded to tell the entire park that Elder Tew was baptizing him on October 8th and invited them all to church on Sunday. Then he asked us what commandments he has to follow to be baptized, and we taught him the law of chastity, and he invited some Jamaican ladies to marry him. I mean, I would think he's a little crazy... but he already came to church twice now, and he's just Jamaican and very humble, so I think he is just funny. But we had a good laugh when he was inviting a Jamaican lady to marry him.

There was a hurricane in our mission this week as well. It really destroyed Puerto Rico. Us out here in the Lesser Antilles are fine. When it hit us, it was a tropical storm. Us and Saint Thomas literally had like no rain and barely any wind. (Most of it hits us Saturday night to Sunday morning.) And then we woke up, and one bush by our door had broken, and nothing else happened. Our island is so small and very mountainous, so it really just is water that would have run off the mountain into the ocean. But our poor missionary friends in Puerto Rico got demolished. They are still inside with no power, and there are floods everywhere. #shoutoutlesserantillenorthzone #shoutoutthevirginislands

Greg was baptized!!! He is awesome. I am very mind-blown. We started teaching him and baptized him about 15 days later. That's really fast. We found him by listening to a prompting to stay and be bashed by a Seventh-day Adventist who, I don't know if I ever wrote about this, but she started saying, "How many days are in the week...7? What's 7+? 14! What's 14+14? 28..... FEBRUARY!!" She proceeded to act like she "poned" us or roasted us after, and to be honest, I still have no idea where she was going with that. Anyways, after we got bashed by her about February, we walk down the street, help the guy moving a couch out of his house, and 2 weeks later, he is baptized.

Khaled is another awesome dude we are teaching who was supposed to get baptized, and he just needed a little bit more time, so we put a date and goal for this week. He needs a lot of prayers and member present lessons. He has gone through a lot of bullying and has some "enemies." I think he just got bullied a lot, and it's sad. He's awesome. He reads the Book of Mormon every day, and he knows it's true. He just needs some prayers and friends. We found him about 25 days ago!

Algernon is an awesome man that we are teaching. He is very smart and super cool! He's a very humble dude that teaches me a lot when we talk to him. He has some good quotes. He read the Book of Mormon and marked it up a lot. We gave him a talk from President Nelson, and he laminated it and was mind blown. He has a baptismal date for October 1st; he just needs to come to church, and then he's good. He was finally going to come, then a hurricane came through, lol.

And there is also Peter, who is that funny Jamaican that has announced to the park that he will be baptized by me. He invited people to church and has been to church twice. He will definitely get baptized October 8th. No doubt, we just have to have the most simple lessons, and half the time I don't even understand him. He's so funny, though; he's always laughing and has the biggest smile.

Greg gave us some avocados, and we made two giant bowls of guacamole, and let me just say... I think those avocados either had laxatives or a lot of fiber because, dang, that was a lot, and I feel so cleaned out. And my companion also.

This week, I have continued reading the beginning of the Book of Mormon in Spanish, and all I am seeing is it talk about keeping the commandments, and it's crazy how that's such a big emphasis in the beginning of the book. I love reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I can't even describe how different it is to read it in another language. Also, the fact that I understand it in another language is even weirder. Speaking on commandments and the Lord's law, there was a story Elder Christensen (my trainer) said on his departing testimony that really was something that stuck out to me when he told me. We were in Arecibo, and we were talking about stuff, then I said, "Elder Christensen, what if I hypothetically get a prompting to knock a door" (this was at a time we couldn't knock doors), and he said, "Elder Tew, by all means, if you get a prompting, follow it. But we also know the Lord will never go against His rules or standards. If we are supposed to find that person in that house, the Lord will put them in our path in a way we can keep the rules."

And I have been touched and affected by this my whole mission. It was a really special teaching from a mission father, and it was true, and it is true. And the Lord always does everything for the benefit of others. He will always find a way to get His work done. This is just a testimony to me because of Greg and Marie and Jose in Dorado. There was nothing we could have done to help or be in their path. It was just crazy we were in the right place at the right time because we were obedient to the Lord's missionary standards and the commandments. As I read First Nephi, I truly am able to recognize that promise: if ye obey the commandments, ye prosper; if you don't, you perish, and it's true with everything.

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.