I guess that will be my legacy!

This is the baptism picture for Gopi. His real name is Pertab Singh.
(Elder Averette, Gopi, and Jonathan)

This is the baptism picture for Vicky Balkarran. He is Ricky's little brother. We baptized Ricky last week!
(Elder Averette, Ricky, and Jonathan)

This is Jonathan with a few of the kids in his area.

How has my week been? I don't even know where to start. We had
two more baptisms. We will be having another one this weekend, the lady's name is Sarah. If we are lucky, we might even be able to have 3 others! We had 5 for the month of September. That's the most that this area has had since May.

I went on a trade-off with Elder Ritchey (one of my zone leaders)
in Rose Hall this week. He asked me to come up with a symbol to represent confirmation. There is a symbol for baptism that all of the missionaries know so he wanted one for confirmation too. I came up with a pretty cool symbol that will be used in this mission forever.
I guess that will be my legacy!

As far as transfers go, we move on Tuesday's and they tell us the Friday night before. So we only have a couple of days to get everything packed and to say our goodbyes. If some of the "real" letters are left behind, they will give them to the Assistants to the President to deliver. They always come to zone conference with a suitcase full of letters for people that have moved.

I will get to watch all of conference this weekend. I'm jealous that you got to meet Elder Hales and President Eyring! Poor Julie having to speak in front of him (Pres. Eyring) at her farewell!!!

The scripture of the week isMosiah 4:9-10.

Things are going well right now

These are a few pictures from the combined Canje and Berbice Zone Conference held on September 17th.

Jonathan's zone (Canje) sang a musical number.

They enjoyed a Guyana style lunch of roti, curried chicken and pineapple. (Sis. Robison says that Guyana pineapple is the absolute best in the Caribbean)

If you look closely you will see Jonathan eating in the background.


The Mighty Missionaries of the Canje Zone!



Now onto Jonathan's e-mail from this week.

This is our baptism picture for this past weekend. (From left to right) Me, Ricky, Vijay, Vishal and Elder Averett. I was privileged enough to baptize Ricky and Vishal. We are hoping to have 3 more this weekend! Things are going well right now.

Sorry again about not being able to write much last week. Anyway,
I have a list of things I want to talk about so I'll dive right into it.

The dog that bit me didn't tear my pants. It just left permanent bite marks! (Battle wounds).

We have a lot of power problems around here but we always seem to have it when we absolutely need it.

Yes, we have a washer. We have to hang dry the clothes though.
As far as I can tell, that's how it is all over the mission. I hate the water we have to use though because it's so rusty. I have to use a rag to filter it as I fill up the tub or else my clothes get covered in rust stains. I have lost a couple of shirts because of that. (That was before I realized I could filter it!) Don't worry though. I still have 8 short sleeves and that's all I need at the present time. I could probably use one for Christmas though… :)

I almost blew myself up in the oven yesterday. I thought that the gas was turned off when I lit the match to turn the oven on. I leaned in and then all I know is that I was surrounded by light and flames!!!
The whole oven was engulfed in a fireball! It was so cool. By looking at me, you wouldn't know that I had done that though… All I had was a few singed hairs on my right arm! Other than that, I'm doing okay so don't worry about me. I know I'm protected because the flames weren't hot. They were just warm. It was a weird sensation. Probably like Nephi and Lehi in their furnace or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. I also got electrocuted this week while doing some wiring work at one of the other apartments. Again, I'm perfectly fine.

In my personal scripture study, I am in Helaman 5. And in my personal study of the Book of Mormon in French I am in 1 Nephi 6.
I have also ordered a Preach My Gospel in French to help me learn the language better. I know I didn't tell you, but I have decided to try and learn French while I'm out here. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

The scripture of the week is Proverbs 17:17.

Well, I gotta run. We have taught 105 lessons over the last 2 weeks so we are really busy. At the rate we are going, by the time this transfer is over, we will have taught 275 lessons! We are working really hard right now and I'm always worn out. I always have enough energy to play a good game of basketball like we did this morning though!

I love getting letters by the way. It makes me feel somewhat remembered.