ANOTHER GREAT WEEK AND MONTH!!!!!

Dear Family,

Before I forget, Mom, my contacts are dying, well, they are dead, but I still use them. And also, if you want to be nice, will you send me some magic tricks? The little kids are dying here for new magic, and I don’t got anything else. And I can't use cards. So yeah, and thanks to all who have written me. Just so everyone knows I can only write to my family, but this letter can be forwarded to others. Give me your home address if you want me to write a personal letter. You might not get a letter for a long time though, because I am super super busy right now. Anyways, This week was absolutely amazing....Ended out finishing the month completing our goal of 47, and we are The Celestial Zone again. We ended up baptizing 48. We are only the second Zone that has ever been Zona Celestial two times in a row. The other Zone that did it, was my last Zone when I was there for two changes with my kid. So we have been very blessed. I love wrestling and doing everything I can to get my goals. Everybody knows that if we are going to set a goal with the Lord, we are not going to let him down! The mission is awesome. There is no time to celebrate, or just sit down and relax. You get one goal, then the next day, you're working for another. Mission life is awesome! This last week was full of all kinds of obstacles, but the Lord helped us wrestle our way through them. After Sunday, we had only baptized 43 people.  We still had up until Wednesday to baptize more, because Wednesday was the last day of the month. So on Monday, we went out to work, and ended up baptizing a lady that had already visited the church two times and received all the lessons. She just had some doubts that we were able to resolve.  The Lord helped her feel prepared, and she entered the baptismal waters on Monday night! She is about 70 years old. We also had an old man, that is about 60 something, in the ward baptize her. He was so happy to do the work. It was a really nice, spiritual, baptism. On Tuesday, I worked all day in my area on splits, and I sent my companion to help some other missionaries. We ended up baptizing another person in my area after some challenges with finding water. We had no water in town, so we had to take a taxi to the river, where we baptized a 16-year-old girl. She lives with members, but she also had some doubts about the church. Elder Lopez and I went and bore our testimonies, and invited her to get baptized the same day and she accepted! So, after Tuesday night the Lord had blessed us with 45 baptisms. I still wasn’t happy. I still felt like I was failing the Lord. I knew the Lord wanted us to complete the goal. And we promised Him at the beginning of the month that we were going to do so, with and only with His help. So, I  knew the Lord was going to prepare the way. So, on Tuesday night, I called up the Elders in Trujillo and asked them if they had any possibilities for people to get baptized on Wednesday (the last day of January). They told me they had a sister whose husband is a member and she had already gone to church the last two Sundays. I told them I was going over there first thing in the morning to put a baptismal date with her for that same day. The Elders told me I better pray hard. So I went with a Junior Companion from another district close by, and we went to Trujillo at 7:30 in the morning. My Comp stayed behind with his Senior Companion to baptize another person they had in their area. So we arrived at Trujillo at about 9. We walked to the Elders' house. They had been fasting. So we ended their fast with them with a prayer on our knees and begging for a miracle. We then got up and left the house to complete our mission. As we arrived, all the elders looked at me. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t even know the lady. So, I started talking to her about her family. Then we talked about the church, and how she feels when she goes. We gained her confidence. Then we talked about baptism and about Jesus Christ. Then I asked her, "Sister, when do you think Christ would want you to get baptized? And she just looked at us and said, “Today”! I then invited her to do it. So accepted, as if it had been planned for two weeks. We then talked to her mother-in-law who is a member. She said she was willing to support her at her baptism. So we told her we would fill up the font with water, then come back to pick her up in a taxi. She was so happy. So we filled up the font, went and ate lunch on the beach, and then we went to go pick her and her mother-in-law up. As we arrived at the church, I did the baptismal interview, then she changed in white, and Elder Schmidt from Trujillo got his whites on...ready to baptized her. In the baptismal service, I gave a talk, then the sister (her mother-in-law) that is a member gave her testimony. Then us four elders sang a special hymn (it was pretty good). Then she got baptized at about 3 in the afternoon. After the baptism, we congratulated her and talked a little bit. The Elders from Trujillo left to drop them off at their house, and we left back to Tocoa. It was such a great feeling. The Lord really did everything. I was still a little nervous though, because I was hoping everything went well in Tocoa. As we arrived in Tocoa at about 6 o'clock, we went to the church. There, I found an awesome surprise. One of my new converts was baptizing his niece that lives with him, and who had been going to church. They both had really big smiles on their faces. And also another person from another little branch here in Tocoa (the planned one) from the other pair of missionaries was getting baptized. So after Wednesday, we had 48 souls that had entered the waters of baptism and were confirmed. It was and is a miracle! We really didn’t do anything. The Lord had prepared these people, and He helped them get baptized. It felt really good achieving another goal that we had put with the Lord. But there was no time for celebrating, the next day was the first of February and we are now working towards another goal. As a zone, we have a goal of 44 Baptisms. I would like to pass the mission record of 59. This month as a mission, we baptized 348 people. It was the most we have ever baptized in the history of this mission in one month. On the 14 of February, we have changes, and when we go to change meeting we are going to have a special conference for the accomplishment of 348 baptisms. I really love it out here in Colon. It is not at all like the missionaries have said about it, before I came out here. All the Elders used to say this was pretty much a "hell hole" and nobody baptizes out here. I am very happy to just be a part of this great work, and all of the work that the Lord has done here in the months of December and January. The mission is awesome. I love it and I don’t want to come home. Have a great week. Love you all, Elder Lee