Derek: Captain's Log Week 26: Larimar

"Tomorrow marks 6 months on my mission, which is insane because I feel like I just got here. It's been a crazy week, so I will be quick." (Elder Dylan VanBuskirk) 

Thanks Dylan. Couldn't have said it any better myself. But it’s been a good kind of crazy. So this Saturday we had 3 baptisms. They will be really strong members. We had new newly married couple, Santiago and Danny, (I baptized Danny) and Laurda. They are all really good and strong believers. They are what we call here Larimar, which is a very rare precious stone that is only found in the DR. That is the kind of investigators these are; super precious and only found here.

We are now working with their family members, and could have anywhere from 6 to 9 baptisms this transfer: consisting of the brother of Laurda, 2 kids and a nephew of Danny and Santiago, and five sisters that we are working with. I am determined to get their mom too, but she will need a bit more time. And you may be thinking, well, most of those are kids.  Well, it's called using partial member families, so leave me alone.

So the president left a goal for our mission to get 200 baptisms this month. Which would be twice as much as last month. He also told me and the other missionaries in our ward if we get 20 baptisms this month we can do it at the beach. 20 is a lot and 1/10 of the goal of the whole mission. So we had 3 this week and the other elders will have 2 net week and so our goal is to get 15 for the 26th and be like, “Hey president, here is your 20 for the month.” but we will see.

Anyway, we had no water in our house this whole week, which sucked. But I can’t wait to Skype hope for Mothers’ Day next week. And I may or may not burn a tie tomorrow.

Picture From left to right: my comp, Santiago, Danny, Laurda, this cool dude from Spain that baptized her(mi tio) and me.

We will have 3 baptism this week and probably 2 next week.

Love you too.  Did you send my package yet?

Do you have Mckee’s Japan tie? Also the tech decks - I was serious about that. And maybe something cool from the bookstore but i cant think of anything. BYUI gear? Eww gross. No.

Thanks, and I can’t think of anything I really need from there, so surprise me.

Sweet, thanks mom. You are the best.

Tell Alex I said “Me madre no puede intender este. Pero tu puedes.”

And did get the pic of my baptism yet? I will probably Skype you at around 5pm on Sunday.

Yeah, Dylan and I have been emailing more lately.

Thanks mom. Anyway, I gotta go. Talk to you Sunday! Love you.