Elder Mifflin is still in La Vega zone, Conina area, with
the same companion. They had one baptism
in December and the work is picking up. They now have 8 investigators with
baptism dates. Even so they still have
some difficulty getting the people they teach to follow up with commitments and
make it to church but they are pleased with the progress. It has been really, really hot and Elder
Mifflin misses winter. He has stayed
healthy and is eating lots of rice and beans.
As for most missionaries, service opportunities abound. Elder Mifflin and a few of his buddies raised
some money and rebuilt a needy member’s house at Christmastime, including new
walls and a metal roof, all in a few days and it was a big surprise to the
sister. Skyping at Christmas was a
special treat for our family. We can vouch for the fact that Elder Mifflin’s
Spanish is getting pretty good.
Living in the tropics has its adventures. Here is an excerpt from a recent email. “At night before I went to bed I noticed that
there was a huge spider chillin’ on the wall above my bed, waiting for me to go
to sleep so that he could eat me. It was
a little bit bigger than the size of my palm and super fast. We had a pretty intense battle, him and I,
for about 10 minutes and then I was finally able to smash him with a door,
on top of our shelves. Fortunately I was able to kill him and sleep
in peace.”
Elder Mifflin wrote “the mission has been super frustrating
but also super good…I have lots of blessings to count.” He also quoted Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland “the mission is hard and sometimes painful, because if you
want to be a representative of Christ you must feel and experience a tiny
portion of what He felt and experienced.”
We are proud of our missionary. His testimony and commitment are strong and
he is happy with his decision to serve.
He also has a newfound appreciation of the many blessings of the good
ol’ USAJ
