Hello everyone!

Big news of the week: We have a new prophet! I hope you all got to see the broadcast of them announcing that President Russell M. Nelson is our new prophet, with President Dallin H. Oaks as first counselor and President Henry B. Eyring as second counselor. That was so exciting and hearing them speak was amazing! The Spirit was so strong, even all the way over here in Aruba. I know that President Nelson is truly the prophet of the Lord and that he will lead and guide us in these days, and if we listen to him, we will receive all the blessings that the Lord has in store for us.

So, I know that I have been telling you all about Juandavid and that his baptism was scheduled for this past Saturday, but unfortunately, the baptism didn't happen. We were waiting at the church for them to show up and they weren't coming. So a different set of missionaries rode over to their house to see what was going on and told us that David, Juandavid's dad, who was going to perform the baptism, said he felt strange and didn't want to baptize. They let Juandavid know that there were other men at church that could baptize him, but he said he only wants his dad to do it. So we had to tell everyone what happened and send them home...I was surprised at how nice they were about it! I thought they would all be frustrated with us, but instead they said, "Well that's how it goes sometimes, this isn't the first time it's happened." And they kept asking us if we were okay and if there was anything they could do to help. It was so sweet! We even had a member call us later that night and ask if we had recuperated from our no-show baptism, haha! We are not quite sure what is going on with David and the whole Filiciana family, but some of the Relief Society went to visit Melissa last night and we are going to see them on Tuesday. We are keeping them in our prayers!

Our other investigators are doing really well! We have met with Eduardo a lot this past week, and in our last lesson, we taught him about the Book of  Mormon and gave him his own. After we explained it, he said "This is my answer about why God would only talk to people in Jerusalem...now I know I was wrong! He talks with all His children!" It was such a great lesson and we are so excited to see him tonight!

Daniel, Nerwins, and Javier are doing really well! They love the Book of Mormon and we taught them about the Plan of Salvation last night. They loved that we can live with God and Jesus Christ and our families in the Celestial Kingdom and said they want to follow Jesus Christ so they can make it there one day. We invited to them to be baptized and they said they want to keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying so they can be 100% sure, but their testimonies are growing every time we visit and every time they read!

We had such a tender mercy from the Lord this week that I wrote about to President Egbert:

Even though this week was difficult, the Lord still blessed us with lots of tender mercies! One of these happened on a morning when our first appointment fell through. We were walking our bikes out of the neighborhood where we were, and happened to walk past the house of a former investigator, Jesus Antonio. We dropped him a few weeks ago because he wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon before he prayed about anything, but he wasn't putting in the effort to read. However, he loved learning about the gospel. When we passed by his house, he was outside working in his yard. This was such a blessing, because he is almost always at work during the day. We stopped to talk to him and he said that he has been reading the Book of Mormon (he is in Jacob) and he could remember the story so well and he loves it! He said he is learning so much. Because he had made this progression, we made an appointment with him for this week and are going to start teaching him again! This was such a blessing from the Lord that we were able to see him and that he has been doing so well on his own in these past few weeks. I know that even though things don't always work out the way we think they should (our appointment falling through), the Lord has His own, perfect plan (we talked to Jesus Antonio!). I am so thankful for the Spirit that guides our actions every day in this work!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Don't forget to read the Book of Mormon! Love you all tons!

Love,

Sister Davidson

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