18 Junio 2001

Dear Family,

Another Monday come and halfway gone; and, like the last one (and the majority of them), this one snuck up, too. Elder Christopher and I are really having a great time. We're "working our guts out," to quote a teacher from the MTC, and feeling great. We're feeling the Spirit more often and more strongly and so are those with whom we speak and share. Our program of investigators is growing rapidly, and now one of our goals for this upcoming week is to teach 12 progressive charlas (numbers 2-6). In this manner we'll become more efficient instruments in the hands of the Lord - gathering up the wheat (more quickly) and then sorting through the wheat and the tares (more quickly) to find the chosen ones, those whom the Lord has prepared. He really does guide us to his chosen, and I've truly seen it. For example, the one day Elder Pope chose to spend the day with us (the first time in my mission when we've spent an entire day with an Assistant to the President) as we're walking down the street away from a member's house we see a group of about 6 or 7 teenage boys sitting on the sidewalk and as we walk by, they start calling out names at us. Well, as I normally do in such cases I just kept walking but then I realized that both Elder Pope and my comp had gone back to meet them. I followed in suit and we all presented ourselves to them, explaining that we're missionaries who share about God and Jesus Christ, as they smirk all the while. We ask the ring leader if he lives close by, to be possible to share with his family and points to a metal shop across the street, telling us that his uncle who works there needs to listen to a message about God. So we grin as he stops accusing this uncle and say thanks, and then cross the street to speak with him. There we meet Jose Medina, a humble hard working guy who likes God but can't talk right now. So we ask him for his address and points across the street at a 2 story house and tells us that he lives there, so we write down the address and continue on our way. Two days later, Elder Christopher and I find ourselves ditched by a couple of appointments and with nothing to do, so we decide to go visit Senor Medina. We arrive to the house and knock, and a cheerful lady in her mid to late twenties comes out to meet us. We ask her if the Senor Medina lives there and she says no. A bit baffled, we ask her if she knows him and she says yes, that he's an uncle of her and that her name is Arelis Medina, and she then tells us that he lives behind the shop and up a seiries of streets. Down but not out, we ask her if she and her other friends that were there with her would have about 15 minutes to share about God. To my surprise she happily accepts and so do her friends. We share a great 1st charla and come back for the verification to see if they had read and prayed. Well, just Arelis and her mom was there and they both had read, and Arelis had prayed and felt good about it. Which, if you ask any missionary is pretty rare to found that they've read and prayed. So we go over a few key points and schedule to come back to teach them the 2d charla the following day. We come back, teach a fantastic charla where everyone felt the Spirit and they both accept the baptisimal date for the 30th of June. Well, to make a long story short, Arelis is anxiously waiting for her baptism on the 30th, and her mom will be baptized the following week. But such a string of events that led us to them.

The 14th we had changes and against all odds I'm still here but Elder Hughes went out to Morom (close to Puerto Cabello) and in his place came Elder Felsted who has 6 months in the country. (I still don't have an entire year in the country - 4 more days). He's from Farmington, UT. What else happened . . . Well, I just got a call from Elder Allen in the office (from my group from the MTC) telling me that I'm going to Curacao (koo-roo-zao) some island somewhere. I can't see it on any map but I believe it's in the Caracas mission. But I'll be there for 48 hours and then I'll come back. Elder Christopher's scared a little bit but he'll do fine with his splits.

Love you all, Elder Onken