commit and follow up...

Dear Family,

I was very glad to hear about Jonathan's ordination. I remember when I was first a deacon. I, too, was scared to pass the sacrament. But the Lord really does strengthen us over time. The picture was nice, everyone looks the same!

This past week was full of excitement. The crowning event would have to be the baptism of Sri Raj. Working with him was such a blessing. Shortly after our first visit with him, we both felt that he was truly prepared. In retrospect I note two factors that influenced his preparation. The first is his intelligence. He was smart and he had a thirst for knowledge, thus the book of mormon was gold to him. The second factor was certain events in his life which brought him into the depths of the humility. Elder Schmidt and I happened to met him at just the right time.

Another brother I had worked with during a transfer also got baptized this past sunday. It was a great sabbath. There are many wonderful things happening in our area. We are discovering the value of following up. We are working with a ton of people and it is easy to lose track of who is supposed to be doing what. We made a companionship goal to be consistent in organization and following up. We found that people are much more likely to keep their commitments with follow up.

We were having trouble getting new missionaries from the states over here. Something was held up with the visas. We just received word that all is good, so I think we will be getting some more Americans in the next week or so. We were all relieved to hear that. It worried us to think that we all might be the last American missionaries over here for a while.

Love,
Elder Tuscano