Bon Bini na Aruba!!‏ (email dated 05/17/2010)

Bon Dia na tur,

So this past week was a week full of events here in the mission. Wednesday was my last transfer meeting in the mission of San Juan Puerto Rico West mission... Thursday we did see the baptism of Veronica which was a wonderful going away present from the enchanted of island of Puerto Rico. Then on Friday was my flight down to the island of Curacao where i ended up staying for a the whole day Saturday. Then Saturday night i caught a 20 min flight over to the island of Aruba to be introduced to my new area! Full of cool events right?

So on Wednesday we went to Transfer meeting where i found out for sure where I'm going to end my mission. The answer was I'm going to San Nicolas which is on the other side of Aruba then i was last time. The meeting was pretty crazy because it was my last one as a member of the San Juan west mission. So i made sure to take pictures with all the people i wont be seeing in long time. After transfer meeting on wednesday we got all the preperations ready for Veronica to be baptized the next day on Thursday! All went well at her interview and then everything just fell into place for her baptism the following day! As we were taking her baptismal pictures we had a pretty cool visitor come to show support at the baptism. President Martineau came to see it which was really cool to have my mission president there for my last baptism there in Puerto Rico. Veronica was completely submerged on the first try which was a wonderful little moment to see and feel as i watched it. All of the hard tests and trials that she had been going through were finally all put behind her as she took her first step down the strait and narrow path that the lord has given us to follow. She was very happy and relieved to have been able to be baptized and at the same time a little sad that i was going to be transferred the next day. But it was awesome that i was there to see her baptism and as a going away gift she gave me a tie! Pretty cool right?

So the next day was full of events also when i showed up to the office to get ready to go to the airport and catch my plane. Elder Sellers, who was also going to be going down to the island with me, couldn't find where he had placed his passport. I guess he didn't think about it until the last moment which made us all frantically search for his passport in all his luggage and files in the office but to no avail.So what ended up happening was that i went down by my self and stayed a day in Curacao where he was supposed to go to be with his companion Elder Wilkes. So since i was in Curacao my companion Elder Ellis stayed in a threesome with the other two elders on this island. It all turned out to be a great blessing also because i was able to visit a lot of members and including Marlone who i baptized in curacao! He even came out to go visit an investigator with us. Truly it was a great blessing from the Lord to be able to spend one more day in Curacao! So then the next day Elder Sellers found his passport and came down to Curacao and i went to Aruba on Saturday night. It was a quick flight of about 20 to 30 min. on a little tiny plane that you could see into the cockpit. It was a really cool experience actually that i liked a lot. So I'm not in the same area as i was last time and still haven't been able to see Luisa who i baptized up there last time but I'm sure the time will come. Its a small island...Also to start off on my first Sunday i spoke in church seeing how the Branch president called me Sunday morning to let me know about it. It was all good though because it was on a great subject which was Testimony! It went really well i felt and the weird part was that it was in English. Yup you read right, this branch has their meetings all in English. Every one basically on this side of the island prefers English but speaks all four languages. Its a really small branch down here though, we only had 17 members in church yesterday, so there's some room for improvement there. I haven't been in an area like this since Utuado my second transfer in the mission... Also they made me 1st counciler in the Elders Quorum presidency... so as you can see we have a lot of work to be done here in San Nicolas and I'm glade to be able to do it here with the Lord leading the way!

So that's the update on my side of things! I'm happy to read all is well back home and the family closer than ever! Remember i love you all!
Love,
Elder Lopez