Thanksgiving Beef Soup and Two Investigators with Baptismal Dates

Hi Everyone!

Another great week has gone by in the mission field, and I'm still doing great thanks to God's help. The Lord truly qualifies the people He calls, there's no way I could do this if I didn't have divine intervention. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, as always I'm being blessed for them far beyond what I deserve.

With the Thanksgiving weekend things were a little slow, because a lot of investigators were out of town and we couldn't make very many appointments. Speaking of thanksgiving, I got to eat at a member's house and we had a traditional beef soup and tamale dinner. :) It was a little sad to not have the turkey and real American food, but the company was really fun and it felt like a home. Ok, another tangent. The Spanish people like to cook meat with the bones still on it, especially in the soups and stuff, so a lot of times you have to scrape meat off the bones in your soup with a spoon. It's a little interesting, I'm still not sure how to do it.

We now have two investigators with a baptismal date, and we're working with a couple others that will probably have one soon. One of them is named Pablo, he's from Honduras and his wife is an inactive member, but all their family are members and are in the branch. He's ready to be baptized as soon as possible, he decided to really pray sincerely to ask God if he should go to our church or the "Roca Eterna" church he'd been going to, and he said "it was revealed to me that God wants me to be a part of this church, and I can't stop thinking about it!" The only holdup is that he needs to get married to his wife first, and he needs photo ID to do that. So, we're trying to get a Hondurian ID sent out from his country, hopefully we'll get it in a week or so.

I'm discovering out here how important it really is to get married in the temple, because I'm seeing a lot of people who didn't and it's really sad. It really has a huge impact on the rest of their lives and the lives of their children. The good thing is that there's always hope, we're working with some of the members in getting them to the temple, and I'm understanding more fully now how big of a step it really is and how important it is.

I'm so grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel I have, and for the chance I have to serve the Lord full time for two years, and help bring His children the blessings that come through the restored church. I know that the church is true, and that everything that we talk about is real. The greatest part is, I don't know that because someone convinced me of it or because I was brainwashed, I know it because I've asked God about it and He's told me. We have the greatest thing in the world here, and it's awesome to be able to share that!

I hope you're all doing well, have a great week!

Elder Damon Janis

P.S. Daron and Heather, thank you so much for the laminated Plan de Salvacion figures you sent me, we use them multiple times a week and they're fantastic!