A New Start, with a New Companion!

Hermana Peck with her new companion, Hermana Conrady

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Dominican Candy Bar

Yoanna's Baptism

Well, I guess i should get started on this email, now that my time is almost up. Sorry!

Yoanna got baptized this week. It was a great baptism. But she showed up an hour and a half late. I was dying. And then the next day, she showed up 3 minutes before sacrament meeting ended so she barely got confirmed. Granted, she lives the farthest away from the church of anyone, but we need to talk about punctuality. The modesty lesson we had was very effective. She started wearing t-shirts under all of her tank top dresses.

I finally asked Hna Caguimbal, because I was very confused. The Philippines that she talks about and the stories I heard from Loren were so completely different. She said, "Oh yeah, when he served we were just starting to really get developed and to turn around. We were a third world country up until about when he served, but we aren't anymore." I had thought that the DR would be kind of similar to where she's from, but she said that no, it's a lot more developed over there. I thought that was an interesting fact.

Ondina actually prayed for the first time. Like a real prayer. She kept throwing little fits telling us she couldn't pray because we'd never taught her how. (We had a million times over). She wanted a memorized prayer like the Lord's Prayer that she had memorized from when she was a member of a previous church. Trying to get her to just talk to God was like pulling teeth. But somehow, after trying everything, she did. In an interesting way, but she did.

I really love being a missionary. It is really the greatest thing. I have the greatest job. And the best thing is, I think that I really have changed. I think that I really am a better person than I was before. But there's still so much to learn in not enough time. I think that I've finally handed over the steering wheel to Heavenly Father, and now I can enjoy the ride.

Love you all,
Love Sarah