May 9, 2011

Dear everyone,

I realized that when we did Skype, I was so caught up that I forgot to say Happy Mother's day, so... Happy Mother's day mom! And Courtney and Debbie as well. Haha sorry about that guys. It was awesome to see all of you on Skype, but it kind of freaked me out. It was super weird to see my house and everything. I loved it though and I'm so glad I got to see all of you! Especially little Mia. Thanks for setting that up, it was super awesome, and I'm glad it worked!

Our area just exploded this week! We had so many new investigators and we taught more lessons than I've ever taught on my mission except for one really good week in Nice. It was great! Yves and Mario are still doing well. Yves came to church again this week, and of course he loved everything about it again. He takes notes in Sunday school and participates and everything. He's legit. He's already read up to the end of 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon too. We have two other investigators who just committed to baptism too! The first is Alexandra who we found this week. She was born Muslim, but when she was 14 she became a Christian. She's 50 now and has so much Faith and wants to follow Christ! Unfortunately she's already met a lot of opposition from her friend. We're praying for her. And the other person who committed is... (drum roll please)... Sebastian!!! Yes, that's right, Sebastian! I can hardly believe it haha. He finishes his Catholic thing this week. We finally found out the reason why he wants to be confirmed Catholic. It's kind of personal to him so I won't go into details, but I guess he was really hurt by the Protestant church years ago and now he kind of wants to spite them and put them in their place by being confirmed Catholic. We explained to him that it won't doing anything for his salvation, but he still wants to do it. I don't remember how it came up, but then we started talking about baptism like we have so many times. He finally admitted that when he had been baptized before, it wasn't done by the authority of God. Then we simply said, "Sebastian, we love you, and we want you to have all the blessings that God has in store for you. You've been blessed for your efforts to follow Christ in the past, but you won't be able to receive all the blessings of heaven in any other church, or from any other baptism, except this one." The Spirit was so strong and we were all pretty emotional. I felt pushed to invite him to accept a baptismal date. I invited him to be baptized the 4th of June, and he accepted! It was an absolute miracle. Every time we had invited him in the past, he said he had to read the entire Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants first and do all this other stuff and then he would think about it - but this time, he left that all aside and he did what the Spirit whispered to him. It was one of the most powerful moments I've had as a missionary. I'm so happy for him!

As you know, there's another companionship in our apartment too. One of them is Elder Temanaha-Moo (I think) and he's from Tahiti and he's bleu. He's so sweet! It's the first time there hasn't been only English speakers in the apartment. He's a real islander. He keeps wanting to kill dogs for dinner, and we keep telling him it's probably against the law haha. It's awesome having him in the apartment. It definitely changes things up. We jam on the Ukulele together (there's 2 in the apartment) when we have some free time. We're currently writing some sweet versions of Primary songs.

The work is going great here and I'm so excited for the rest of the transfer! Elder Garland and I work well together and he's a great companion. We're working hard, having fun, and seeing miracles! I'm loving it and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Coming on a mission has totally opened my eyes, especially to the love of God for His children. The message of the Restoration is the proof that God loves all His children in every generation. Seeing people accept it and feel the same thing is the most beautiful thing in the world! I know God loves us and he hears and answers every sincere prayer. I'm so thankful for the work He does among us today, and the chance I have to be an instrument in His hands and participate in His work! This is truly His work, and not ours. That is evident with each day that passes here on the mission, and it's amazing to witness. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tudor