Week 25 (Week 2 in Exile - with Miracles)

Hello everyone!!  This week has been fantastic out here on our little island of Menorca.  Elder Dixon and I are killing it out here!  We hit Pautas!!!  AKA Standards of Excellence in other missions, we had 12 Member Present Lessons, 7 investigators in church, and 6 new investigators!!  Pretty dang good for our first week alone on an island! 

We saw so many little miracles this week!   One of my favorites was with the baptismal service of the Branch President's daughter. The Branch President lives in a pueblo about 40 minutes away and the baptismal font (aka small pool) takes 3 hours roughly to fill, so he asked us to fill it for him. We agreed to fill it although we had never done it before (seeing as Elder Dixon and I have only been here for a transfer). Last week before he left, Elder Neumiller gave me a crash course on filling the font and we hoped that'd work. Here to get hot water, we have to turn on the instant water heater outside that runs on butane and use the hose to fill the pool. We started it up but the water heater flame wasn't igniting. Cold water was coming out, we called everyone and nobody knew what to do. Eventually, the Branch President just told us to go with cold water. We started filling the font, but we decided to keep trying. Elder Dixon and I decided to say a prayer and ask for help in whatever way needed to get warm water. We kept calling members, and during this time I kept turning the water heater on and off over and over to try to get the flame to ignite. Finally, as I walked toward the door to go get bottles to fill with boiling water from piso, I asked Elder Dixon to try one more time before we left. He pressed the button and with a loud boom the flame ignited and hot water started coming out! We were so excited and we immediately said a prayer to thank Heavenly Father. It was something so simple but it made the baptism of a young 8 year old girl more spiritual. It also strengthened my testimony of prayer even more.

This week has turned around so much!  I started the week feeling nervous about the large task of being one of two proselyting missionaries on an ISLAND but ended by feeling successful for the week.  It is amazing how the Lord builds us up through trials!  Well I've got to go, rushed as always, but remember to stay positive and work hard and the Lord will bless you!!

Con Amor,

Elder Jonson