Hello Everyone!
Another transfer has come and gone and Hermana Dollahite and I are both still here, as are Elders Taveras and Davis! President said he absolutely did NOT want to mess with a good thing!
Things in the Branch have totally turned around. President Lopez asked if the missionaries could speak in Sacrament meeting before James (our branch mission leader) presented the new branch mission plan. We now have a branch goal for each member to Invite one person to church, to a branch activity, or to a family home evening each week. We also have a stake goal of reading the scriptures daily, sharing our testimony weekly, and being invited into the home of another member to share our love and testimony with them monthly. We have been promised by the Lord that if we will do these things our branch will grow dramatically and exponentially! It is awesome! And the branch is so energized.
Sister Dollahite and Elder Taveras spoke, followed by an AMAZING special musical number by Elder Sims (He is English-speaking elder in our zone who wrote and learned the song in Spanish just for us. He is also our new district leader). After the musical number, James presented the plan. It was a great Sunday.
The Elders also had their first baptism, and it was wonderful to see how excited they were. I thought Elder Davis' eyes might pop out of his head when Diego asked him to do the confirmation (He has only been learning Spanish for five months!). And I don't think I have seen a bigger grin of pure boyish delight than the one I saw on Elder Taveras' face after Diego came up out of the water. What a wonderful week the four of us had working in the field together. It is still hard for me to remember that the way we are doing missionary work is unique.
One of my favorite experiences of the week was at a stake missionary training meeting. The meeting consisted of every branch and ward council in the stake, every missionary, the stake presidency, and President Summerhays. It was a LOT of people. During the meeting the branches and wards discussed their goals and how the work was going. President Summerhays was then asked to provide feedback or counsel.
President Lopez (our Branch President) told everyone that our Branch was holding a monthly family home evening activity, that it would continue to schedule regular temple visits and that we would get all of our members to the temple by the end of the year. He also said we would have a complete home teaching program with integrated accountability. He finished by saying the Branch has the best missionaries he has ever seen and to please never transfer any of us. I'm pretty sure I was beet red. A little complement once-in-awhile is probably okay but this is the Lord’s work.
Then President Summerhays chimed in and said, "Did you all know they had 58 people in sacrament last week? There are beautiful things happening in the Largo Branch, and I am so excited to see it!" It was really cool.
I'm excited to be here and doing the work of the Lord. He really is the orchestrator here, and I am so grateful to be one of the 'instruments' that He uses. What an honor and a blessing it is to be a missionary. This transfer will be the greatest one ever. We are setting high goals and we are determined to reach them. We already have the activity for the month planned and are starting English classes tomorrow. We visited the homes of our members 77 times this last transfer and we are determined to visit even more during this one.
I love you all!
Hermana Levanger
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