I Lied about Hurricane Matthew... Oct 10, 2016

It rained a lot here. As in, we had the worst flooding I have ever seen. We were still able to get around it, and we didn't get super wet, but, HOLEY COW. Most of the bad rain was at night though, so while we were dry living on our 2nd story, we had TONS of members and investigators whose houses flooded up to 2 feet of water. They had to get up at around 3 in the morning and start bailing with buckets and sweeping with brooms. Thankfully, houses here are concrete and tile, so it didn't matter that much. We didn't get the wind, though. The DR was mostly protected from the hurricane, thankfully (TEMPLES for the win). Haiti, as far as I have heard, got DESTROYED. They are in everyone's prayers over here.

As far as people coming to Christ this week, I am pleased to report that we found 3 new families this week, all of whom (at least, those who we've been able to visit for a second time) read the pamphlets we left them and are praying about what we share. I think the biggest things in coming unto Christ are 1. Sincere Prayer and 2. Sacrifice (Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Sabbath Day Observance, etc.). When people pray sincerely, you can tell, because they progress, they have a light in their eyes, and they express genuine concerns and questions with confidence.

We did a service project this weekend at a member's house. We emptied, bucket by bucket, an 8 ft x 8 ft x 12 ft well (at our mission-brained, can't-remember-math calculations, that was about 1200 gallons of water). It was actually kind of fun, and they gave us mangú (mangoo) for breakfast--mashed potatoes but made with plantaines instead of potatoes. Elder W***** and I felt every single one of those buckets the next day (although he emptied more than I did for reasons I'll explain next week for time's sake).

I learned more this week about making my teaching WAY more effective. We talked about boldness and simplicity in our zone training meeting with Pres. Corbitt, to the point of inviting people to be baptized on a specific date in the FIRST VISIT. We also talked about making teaching more ofa conversation in our training study hours this week. Sharing the gospel should be a MUTUALLY EDIFYING EXPERIENCE. As in, both parties talk an equal amount and express their thoughts and their testimonies. I'm working hard on that, and it's hard when you want to control the lesson to make sure the Spirit is there. However, I am finding that the more I let people express themselves, the more the Spirit testifies of truth. President Corbitt told us this week that it is better that a doctrinal truth come out of an investigator's mouth in a lesson than that it come out of amissionary's mouth. A missionary's job, then, is to lead them to find that answer for themselves.

Love you guys! 

Élder Rowe