Nos Vemos Prontos

I am officially writing my last email as a missionary. My heart is breaking. I LOVE being a missionary and I love these people here in the Dominican Republic. MORE THAN ANYTHING. I´m not done yet, though. This week we have 3 baptisms planned! I´m so excited for my brother and sisters to get baptized! Albert, Scarlet and Crismerli are those getting baptized! I love each of them SOOO much. Maria Luisa was baptized on Saturday! 

Well, so many miracles are happening but I´ll just tell you all when I´m in the states....bawling. LOVE YOU ALL! I know that this past year and a half have NOT been a waste of time. I have changed so much. I have gained a stronger testimony than ever of my Savior Jesus Christ. He Lives. I love the Book of Mormon. Stay strong everyone! I´ll forever be hermana Laura (haha)

LES QUIERO MUCHO! NOS VEMOS PRONTO!

Hermana Lawrence

Time is Flying!

This week was amazing.....and FLEW by! We are seeing so many miracles and so much progress in Higuey! Mariangela was baptized on Saturday! Maria Luisa is being baptized this week and Scarlet and Crismeri are preparing to be baptized next week! I can´t believe how much the Lord is blessing us, but I know that there is still opposition that is coming. Really, one of the major challenges that we´re having right now is having enough time to teach everyone....which is a blessing. We´re seeing a lot of our investigators at church. But like I said, we´re preparing to see opposition!

One of the investigators that came to church yesterday was Yunior. One day we were walking in the street and he called us over to gift us peanuts...and told us he wanted us to teach him. We went back a while later and he said that when he was 8 years old (he´s 47 now) he visited the chruch! When he arrived we presented him to the bishop, and the bishop knows him! Yunior´s sister was a member, but she died of cancer a couple of years ago. A lot of members already knew him, so that was great!

Albert wants to be baptized! He´s a members nephew, and when we went to have our first appointment with him, he told us that he had read the pamphlet we left him and wanted to be baptized! He is going to get baptized in march!

We got a reference from the computer last week from a missionary companionship in Canada. They´re teaching a man who is getting baptized in march and his wife lives in Higuey. We went to go teach her and she is AWESOME! Her name is Francia. We taught her plan of salvation and when we got to the spirit world, she started crying. She pulled out a picture of a man and told us that a month ago, this guy (her brother in law) died in a car accident, and was a good guy but never was religious. We explained things to her, cried with her, and we all felt the spirit so strongly. She told us she wants to be baptized so her and her husband can be sealed in the temple! WHAT¿! She´s preparing to be baptized as well!

The family that I was telling you about (the family in the pictures) last week are doing so well! We´re working to reactivate the parents and Crismeri is getting baptized! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

I´m realizing just how much I love everyone here. I´m definitely going to leave bits of my heart in many places here in the Dominican Republic. I already have as I have left areas behind. I love this work. I love the Lord. I love you all!

Hermana Lawrence

More Miracles!

We were able to see a lot of miracles this week (pretty much every week...haha) But the week didn´t start without difficulties. Monday night we went to go visit Jefferson to be able to make contact with him every day before his baptism. It´s a long story that I don´t really have the patience to tell, but long story short, we were found in a very awkward situation where a grown man was yelling at us and saying completly horrible things about Jefferson. My heart ached not only because I literally felt the spirit run away from the house, but because Jefferson was listening to everything he was saying. I don`t think I´ve completley gotten over my easiness to cry...so I cried. But then we had a noche de hogar with a member with a reference and she made us food, so tender mercy!  

Jefferson was baptized, and it was really great! 

We´ve been seeing giant steps with Maria Luisa! She´s the CUTEST girl (and apparently she´s Leo and Joanna´s ¨cousin¨) She was at Mutual this week (which started at 4pm and then she was at the church until 8:45pm becasue she went to Jefferson´s baptism! I was watching her during the baptism and she had the BIGGEST smile on her face! We talked to her afterward and she said ¨I want to make myself mormon and be baptized!¨ She loves being at the church and has made a lot of new, good friends!

A family showed up to the baptism that I had never

seen before, and turns out they´re members that haven´t been to church in 6 years! Right now there´s a little girl in our ward that has cancer and is in the US being treated for it, so they´re doing a lot of fundraisers and such here, and many members wear t-shirts with the cause on it. Pedro, the dad, saw a member wearing the tshirt and asked about it, which then turned into sharing about the church and She invited him to the baptism. He showed up with his wife and 3 kids! They´re the sweetest family and they have a strong desire to come back to church! Their 10 year old daughter is also preparing to be baptized!

I am grateful for all the blessings that God gives me

everyday. I am grateful for ¨coincidences¨ that really aren´t coincedences. I am grateful for leaders who guide us. I know that Russell M Nelson is a prophet of God and that he guides us! I am grateful that I am serving a mission! Love you all and hope you have the greatest week ever! 

Les Quiero!

Hermana Lawrence

Elder Renlund

It was a great week! We had little time in our area due to immigration, cosechas, and an APOSTLE visiting our mission, but the time we had, and the time we had out of our area was great as well! 

I have gained an even greater love and appreciation for the Book of Mormon this week. I was having a stressful morning one day and in personal study I was reading in Alma and the greatest feeling of peace hit me. I know that the book of mormon brings peace, comfort and JOY! There have been several times this week that we have been contacting people with the BOM and they´ve never heard of it, but when we explain to them about it, they´re so interested! I can´t imagine my life without the book of mormon, and I´m so glad I can carry it around in my hand all day!

On Saturday ELDER RENLUND came to our mission! It was amazing! At one point, he asked for a whiteboard and I was sitting on the front row and they put the whiteboard right in front of me. He came and looked DEEP into my plack and then looked at me and asked me how to say attitude in spanish. I had a mini freak out for a second and luckily I remembered how to speak! haha He talked about how we need to have a good attitude and effort as we do the work. If we only have one or the other or we don´t have either, we won´t be successful. We need to have BOTH of them.

Jefferson is getting baptized this weekend! We´ve been working with him since I got to the area, and it´s been a long proccess, but he´s excited for saturday! 

We are seeing some good things happening in the work! I´m excited to start this new weeek! Les Quiero mucho! Have the greatest week!

Hermana Lawrence

Great Week!

What a great week! Tuesday we took the journey to the capital to do transfers! I got my new companion, Hermana Walburger from Fresno, California (my first and last companion is from califonia....haha) The training meeting went a little long, and on Wednesday we had consejo de lideres planned, so we stayed in GAZCUE for the night, which means that we got to proselyte in my old area for a couple of hours! We went to go visit a family that I was teaching when I was there (Dalma and Sanky), but for some reason they stopped visiting them (i assume it´s because they stopped going to church, but who knows?) Dalma was there and she accepted to be baptized! It was really cool though, because Hna Walburger is the one who invited her to be baptized (she kind of freaked out when I told her to invite her to be baptized....) but Dalma accepted and now the hermanas are working with her again! 

Wednesday we had consejo de lideres, I learned a lot! And then after we had to go to another meeting in La Romana with the stake presidency and Pte and hermana Smith and the Zone leaders, which ended late...so we stayed in La romana (I felt bad for my companion....starting her mission and the first two nights she didn´t get to sleep in ¨her¨ bed...and I was in meetings all day)

Thursday we woke up and headed to HIGÜEY FINALLY! And after that all of the days kind of mesh together, but we saw some really great and amazing miracles!

One miracle that we saw is that we contacted a girl named Maria Luisa on friday (we were walking in the street and very few times have I felt the spirit tell me so strongly to contact someone...) we went back to teach her on Satruday, she came to church on Sunday and during sacrament meeting she leaned over to me and said ¨yo quiero convertirme¨ which means she wanted to convert and be baptized! In the afternoon on sunday we went and asked her dad to sign her baptismal record for permission, and he said he really wanted this for her as well, and signed it! She´s already invited 3 of her friends to an activity we have on satruday and to church on sunday. And she´s only 12 years old! 

Another miracle is that on satruday night we passed by Enrique, who´s 10 years old. We invited him to church the next day, and he said he wasn´t going to go because the church was too far away to walk and that he was going to go to a church that was closer to his house. And to be honest, the church is VERY far away from his house (probably a couple of miles...) So I (having very little faith) just invited him to come to church, but I wasn´t expecting much. We sat down in sacrament meeting and then....Enrique walked in! ON TIME. He sat down in back of us. He then leaned forward and told us that he couldn´t remember exactly where the church was (he´s been once before) but before he left his house, he prayed and asked God to help him get to church and to find it. He also said that a couple of times he arrived at points where the street split into two and he didn´t know which way to go, but he explained that he had a thought, but not like his own thought, that told him which way to go! He was being guided by the spirit! And he arrived JUST on time! He also told us that he wants to be baptized really bad! 

So overall, the work is going pretty good. We´re seeing miracles for being obedient and working HARD. I know that when we´re happy and have a positive attitude about all we do, not just the fun things, we will be able to better see all the blessings that Heavenly Father has given us, which are a LOT of blessings! The Book of Mormon is powerful, READ IT!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Lawrence

Leo y Joanna

Well, this is it. My last time telling you all what my new transfer is because I´m officially starting my last transfer....I´m TRAINING here in Higüey and being an hermana leader for two zones....It´s a good thing I won´t have any time to take it easy! I´m excited to work hard and work with a new hermana. I´m already sad I´m leaving her in the middle of her training! haha

Leo and Joanna were baptized and confirmed this week! To be honest, I was a little worried about what the bishop was thinking about them getting baptized because Leo is 10 and Joanna is 8, but the bishop was thrilled! The bishop asked leo to give his testimony in Sacrament meeting. In his testimony Leo said that when he was baptized he felt ¨glorious and an explosion...like BOOM¨ He also said that he was happy where he was at, in the true church and with God :) In Joanna´s confirmation the person giving her the blessing said something that really caught my attention. He said that she would one day be sealed to a preisthood holder in the temple. I thought that was really cool. We´re now working

with their cousin, Mariangela who has a baptismal date for February and with their mom, Anarosa. They´re the cutest and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

This week I tried interesting food....one day someone gave us Pig LIVER and a different day someone gave us PIG TOUNGE. I´m going to be honest, I liked the tounge a LOT better than the liver....haha

I love being a missionary. I don´t think I´ll ever be able to say it enough. I love seing change in people´s lives. I love being able to say I´m a representative of Jesus Christ. I love being able to help people understand their purpose here in the earth. I love the people here! 

Love you all and hope you always remember to read in the Book of Mormon and Pray EVERYDAY. 

Hermana Lawrence

Campansano!

It´s been two weeks of soooooo many miracles. I won´t be able to tell you everything that has

happened, but just know that Heavenly Father loves us and is mindful of our prayers. He knows our hearts and know when we are trying our best! 

So the reason that I didn´t write last week (I was never even going to say anything because I didn´t want you to worry mom....but it´s kind of a cool story) is because we had a zone activity in La Romana last monday and as we walked out of the church into the road a motorcycle that was driving on the wrong side of the road and going super fast so I didn´t even see it....hit me. It was a hit-and-run, so I actually never saw anything. I hit my head on the ground pretty hard and the wind got knocked out of me, so it was hard to breathe. Luckily there were still other missionaries inside the church and they came out

and helped me into the chapel and gave me a blessing. They called the bishop of the ward we were at and he took us to the Emergency room. Really nothing happened, which is a miracle. My leg got cut up and my head got cut up, but nothing other than that. We went back to Higuey after and we proselyted like normal...just a little slower! I know that the priesthood blessing that I recieved was the key point. But the interesting part now: on tuesday, so the day after the accident, we had zone conference in the chapel of La Romana. When we arrived, there was a man there talking to a couple of other missionaries. They called me over. The man who hit me and had driven off, came back the next day. He said he didn´t sleep that night and felt terrible, so he came willing to cover whatever costs he damaged. I told him I was fine and the only thing I

wanted from him was for him to go to church and to listen to the missionaries. He accepted and now the missionaries are teaching him! If it took him crashing into a sister missionary on his motorcycle to find the gospel, so be it! I´m glad I could be the means of him finding the truth! We have also met a lot of people recently that have gotten hit by motorcycles and had a LOT worse things happen. The picture I attatched is a woman and her niece that both got hit by motors but one broke their femur and the other her ankle.....and then me with my cut haha But I know that Heavenly Father was watching over me and I know that he hears the prayers that you always say for the missionaries safety!

Campusano got baptized on Saturday! He was so happy and so excited! Hermana Jacinta (his girlfriend) was

SO happy too! They´re the greatest! We´re also seeing a lot of help from members right now, which is great.

There are a lot of people that are willing to listen to us right now and have the desire to be baptized. We have made a goal to talk about and invite everyone to be baptized we have really seen the results! We ended the week with 17 people that committed to make a covenant with God and be baptized! Now Hna Aleixo and I have to continue to be the instruments in God´s hand to help them and even more people come unto Christ. 

We have also been focusing on the spirit. We are telling people that maybe they won´t remember everything they listen from us, but we want them to realize

the feelings they feel and to reconocer the spirit when it´s talking to them. This is the change we´ve been seeing. people are starting to understand the spirit more.

We were walking in the street one day and a girl stopped us and said Ï always see you in the street are you Testigos?¨ (Jehovas witness) We said no and then we contacted her. We gave her a pamphlet of The gospel of Jesus christ and she jumped up and down and huged us so hard and said ¨no one has ever given me a gift so great in my life!¨ then she told us where she lived and we put a cita to visit her. But then the next day, we were walking way far away from where I understood she lived, and we found her house by miracle! She had read the pamplet two times and so we gave her a book of Mormon to

read. When we went the next day she was already reading in 1 Nefi  chapter 20! Her name is Noelia and she´s 15 years old and the cutest most energetic thing! 

I was reading the talk given in General Conference called ¨By divine Design¨and I have been trying to see the ¨conincidences¨in my live....which really aren´t conincidences. There are so many!

LES QUIERO MUCHO! Have the greatest weeeeek evvvverrrr!

Hermana Lawrence