February 17th, 2009 (Email)

Hey thanks for the Valentine's package! Got it yesterday. That medicine works miracles. The abomination on my face is already dying. That Sesame St. shirt is awesome. I'll lounge in those jeans today. I've only had to wear jeans twice out here so far. Those cards are a great idea. Thanks for all that stationary! I'll be set for quite some time.
Amalia Ramos was baptized by her son David on Valentine's Day! It was such a great baptism! Amalia was pretty nervous but excited. I tried to tell her in Spanish that I was excited by saying "Estoy exitoso" but that was the wrong word. "Estoy exitoso" means "I am successful." "Estoy animado" means "I am excited." Amalia got a kick out of that. The new ward mission leader, Bro. McCay, and the new ward missionary, Sis. McCay, came to the baptism. It was their first one as the new ward mission leaders. David baptized his mom in Spanish like so: "Amalia Ramos, habiendo sido comisionado por Jesucristo, yo te bautizo en el nombre del Padre y del Hijo y del Espiritu Santo. Amen." After David baptized his mom they hugged in the font. They were so happy they were crying. No wonder Satan worked so hard to keep David from being baptized. The power out, the opposition from his parents, the opposition from his friends and all the temptations I'm sure he had thrown at him; it was all to keep these miracles from happening. And it all started because of Omar Santillan. Omar is David's friend who gave him the Book of Mormon pass-along card. Omar was given permission to partake of the sacrament and use his priesthood again a couple weeks ago. He gave a talk, bore his testimony and stood as a witness at the baptism. He took a step of faith back in October and now David, Heliodoro, and Amalia are baptized and Omar has come along with them through the steps of repentance. And there was opposition in all things.
Speaking of opposition I have some bad news. Sam didn't come to church this Sunday. We called her to set up an appointment and she didn't answer. The phone rang a few minutes later and I answered. Sam, who was obviously in tears, sobbed that her mother and her had had an argument Sunday morning and her mom opposes the baptism and her going to church and as of now the baptism this Saturday is cancelled. I calmly told her that it's alright and asked her if we could meet again with her this week. She calmed down a little and said yes and we're waiting to hear back from her. I feel bad that she's being faced with all this opposition. But after seeing what happened with David Ramos and his family I'm confidant that Sam Sakely needs to take a brave step of faith. So does Jason Patterson. And so do we. I prayed about Sam and Elder Bliss and I fasted for her yesterday and we both received an answer that we need to give Sam a priesthood blessing. We talked to Bishop Redding and he said he's going to talk to her too. It's a tough situation. But I'm sure that there are blessings in store for Sam that she just can't see yet.
Kerry. Don't worry about her. She's not being baptized now. She's a Samoan woman that decided to be baptized into the Seventh Day Adventist church last Saturday. I'm a little resentful about that and so is her sister-in-law. In fact her sister-in-law kicked her out, which I think is a little extreme, but that's none of my business. Her sister-in-law is Gaiuli and she's way cool. She loves to feed us and she goes with Robbie Reed to work out several times a week. She's a member and she's trying real hard to commit her family to join the Church. Her husband, Setu, is an Adventist and he doesn't want to change. But her friend Laurna is continuing to meet with us and she said she wants to be baptized. Samoans have the best names. Ikahihifo, Siatenu'u, Gaiuli, etc. It's really hard to give them blessings though because I always mess up the names really bad. I blessed Gaiuli's daughter once and I have no idea what her name is now. Last week Elder Bliss and I blessed the Ikahihifo grandma and I had to ask them about five times what that name was. Again, don't remember even slightly.
I hope you had fun in St. George. Hannah, don't be sad. These next 18 or so months are going to fly by and before you know it I'll be back and I'll be weird but then after that I'll be Tyler again. Enjoy the time you have as the only child! I had nine years of it.
Hope you had a happy Valentine's Day! Thanks for the box full of awesome! Nos vemos and que tengan un buen dia!
Con amor,
Elder Tyler Lewis