Happy May!
I would not be Liz Gardner Randall's daughter if I didn't say Happy National Star Wars Day this Wednesday! :) I will not be watching it, but I do have Darth Vader party blowers:) Crazy that we're heading into the last week of the transfer...and I get to Skype with my family on Sunday, yippee!
On Tuesday, I had a delightful day of English on splits with Hermana Balls in Quisqueya, and I got to meet the Whitters family, who lived in the same ward as my Aunt Shanna in Virginia!! It really is such a small world in the Church:) The husband is working for the U.S. Embassy here, which is on the border of my last area, and they go to a separate English-speaking ward, where the Robbins family also attends--the husband's parents are in the same ward as my Randall grandparents in Idaho, ha! Too funny:)
Dominican religious fact: if you are Christian, it's because you belong to the Christian church, not because you believe in Christ. So if you're Catholic or LDS, you're not a Christian lol. Guess what today is? A Dominican holiday called "Party Day," no joke. Nobody goes to school or work, and they all just drink alcohol. Pretty much sums up this place:)
Thursday, we had house inspection, and at night, we had a dance party! We all did bachata, the national dance, and I taught them salsa and cha cha:) Saturday, us 4 Hermanas sang at a baptism in the Quisqueya ward, and we went to go teach Yamilka, our golden investigator from last week, but she never came and didn't answer her phone. We hope we'll get a hold of her soon! Alex, the other oro puro, read all the way to 1 Nephi 11, whoot whoot! Bishop Polanco taught him with us last night, and it was great. Alex hasn't been able to come to church yet, but he wants to!
Elena has been taught by Herman Perez since February and has still never come to church; she simply doesn't want to wake up that early. She always tell us she'll go and that she'll read the Book of Mormon, but she's not acting on her promises. However, Rosa is reading, so yay! Adolfo...is not getting baptized this Saturday. He drank alcohol again last Sunday, and it was right after an addiction talk in Sacrament Meeting, too. He's been good about coming to church this month until yesterday. The missionaries have been teaching him since September, and his wife & 3 grown children are less-actives. Super sad, his wife, Argentina, recently had a toe on her right foot and her entire left foot amputated, and she has to keep her legs elevated all the time, so she can't come to church. They are good people and need to feel the love of the Savior, and although I can't perfectly understand the pain they are experiencing, we're trying to help them however we can.
God's love is always there for us, no matter what we think, do, or say. Teaching Alex about the Atonement yesterday reminded me that not everyone realizes just how much our Savior and Heavenly Father love us and what they were & are willing to do to help us obtain eternal happiness. Entonces I'd like to change a little bit of John 3:16-17 to remind us how personal the Atonement, the greatest act of love, is:
For God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn me, but that I, through Him, might be saved.
I hope each one of you will feel of that wonderful, perfect love, and may the force/Spirit be with you!
Love,
Hermana Randall
Lunch with Bishop Polanco and his family:) We get to eat with members every Sunday, it's wonderful!
Blanco Polanco:):)