"I am so blessed to be a missionary!"

Hello to my wonderful friends and family!

How are you all? Thank you for all the wonderful prayers and support! I have felt them! Here in Ponce, Puerto Rico its very very very hot. Always! But somehow we survive. We have mountains all around us so that is always beautiful. It randomly rains like for 15 min and then stops… its crazy. And it doesn’t sprinkle, it pours! So funny! A typical day of walking is about 5-10 miles a day. Our area is a lot bigger on foot, but its awesome! I have like 5 blisters and then I counted 35 mosquito bites the other night. The mosquitos are so nuts! I have only seen 2 iguanas, but holy they are huge! and they can run so fast its crazy! The Puerto Rican accent is so hard to understand. They shorten almost all of their words and cut of all the (s) in words, but I’m understanding little by little more! My favorite part about PR is how many people ride horses around its so sweet! Our apartment is the top of someone’s house and is not very big!  We don’t have AC, just fans! There are 4 of us total in the apartment and all 4 of us in the ward. We use a stove, microwave, pots and  pans to cook.  There are 4 sisters and 4 elders in our district.  To exercise, I do pull ups on the house… I literally grab the side of the roof. I love it here!

MIRACLES. Wow! On Tuesday we got shut down by this guy midway through our lesson, so me and my companion left and were walking to a different area to contact. There was this guy pretty far ahead of us walking and we caught up a little and my companion told me to make the contact.  So I yelled at him “permiso hermano” and he turned around and the conversation starter is always “puedo darle una tarjeta” (Can I give you a card). We ended up teaching him in the street for 45 minutes or so and we got invited back the following day to his house! Right after that we saw an elderly lady painting in her garage and so we talked to her and just left her with a restoration pamphlet!

 

Me and my companion, Elder Fox

We met with our investigator whom we met in the street later that week. When we got to his house and they had a full dinner prepared for us! We got invited back and really had a lesson this time.  They are a family of four. The wife was so interested and she accepted to be baptized on the 12th of December. Wow… her faith is so strong! She came to church on Sunday and it was such a blessing! A miracle! To think, we got shut down to then be able to meet this man and his wife.  The Lord somehow prepared them to receive us and our message. Our chances of meeting them were one on a million (or one in Heavenly Father, what we say in the mission).

Saturday was really rough, we got shut down all day, nobody wanted to hear us and our progressing investigator is no longer interested.  We were desperate to find someone who God had prepared for us. My awesome companion said a prayer and said “please place someone in our path that you have prepared for us”.   No lie, about 5 minutes later as we were walking and a lady called saying her name was Juana De Jesus.  We were wondering who she was and we looked in our address book and she was the painter lady! Me and my companion went NUTS!!! If any of you have been a missionary its about a one in a million, that a contact will actually call you! What a miracle! We taught her and she committed to be baptized when she finds out if the Book of Mormon is true! Heck yeah baby! Her son and husband were interested too! So amazing. She said that when we met her, she said she made a promise to God that she would call us back.  Later during the week she got a call from an American and she couldn’t understand because they spoke in English and she said that that reminded her to call us because we are white. Haha.  The Lord prepares people to receive us in so many different ways!

 

P-day haircuts

I love my mission. It’s so hard, but when you have the joy of watching someone turn their life around and develop a relationship with their savior and God… its remarkable and unlike any other feeling. I am so blessed to be a missionary. Don’t be scared to share the Gospel because all they can do is say no!:) Love you all so much! Keep your heads up and endure to the end! I know the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints is so true! I know it! God lives and so does his son, Our beloved brother Jesus Christ.

Love you all… Life is beautiful,

Love Elder Waidmann