Johnstown Week 17

Chris and Nicole are doing fine. We haven't seen them in about a week and a half so that's no good.... They didn't come to church even when we had a ride set up and they went to go and pick them up for church, Chris
didn't answer the door. So that's a bummer.... I was hoping that they would finally come but I guess not this week... But we did have our other investigator, Paris, Come to church!! That was so exciting because
we haven't had an investigator at church for almost 5 weeks! That's too long. But she came and hopefully this next week we'll be able to set her with a baptismal date! Hopefully that will pull through.

So this week there have been some pretty exciting things going on here in Johnstown. The first item of business: Bed Bugs!!!!!!!!!!!! We had somewhatofa infestation at our apartment with bed bugs. For that past
few weeks we had been waking up and having little red bumps on our arms and legs and were wondering where the heck they were coming from! So Tuesday morning Elder Page woke up, got out of bed and found 5 little red bugs crawling on his bed! So we killed them and pulled off his comforter and found some more! So we then pulled his bed out from in the corner and they were all over the side of the mattress and all on the
wall/wood trim on the floor. It was pretty Gnasty!! So, we got the vacuum and sucked them all up and then got some bug spray/killer and sprayed it all over where the darn things were. then we checked my bed
and I only had about 6 total so we did the same, then moved our beds out of the places they were to a different place. Then we washed everything we had in hot water just to make sure we purged the suckers from our premises. So finally we got some good nights rest. They're all gone now, so no need to worry.

Also Alphonso got baptized!!!!!! But sadly, we weren't able to go...President would let us. The baptism took place about 2 hours away from Johnstown in a place called Butler where he lives. But it was so satisfying to hear that he continued to take those steps to be able to live worthily and to make those promises with God. He called us on Saturday and thanked us for everything we helped him with. He also said that he was happy to be baptized but would have been happier if we had been able to do it. But it's okay, as long as it happened, it really didn't matter who did it. I'm still counting him as someone I "baptized" because I was a part of teaching him everything we're supposed to. We taught him everything and then sent him over to Butler to be baptized basically. So I'm counting it! He's such a great guy.

Well Elder Page is going home in a week! So that means I'll be getting a new companion and possibly training! That'll be exciting! And I'll be in Johnstown until August 10, and possibly longer than that. Johnstown is great, I've been getting to know the area very well, and it seems like I've tracted every single street here, I haven't, but it seems like it! The ward here continues to be great and supportive, It's amazing! It's kind of hard sending home a missionary because once he gets to having about 2 weeks left, they start talking a lot about home and what not, and it reminds me a lot of home!! And I miss you guys a lot, it's hard because I've still got 19 months left, but it's okay. More time for me to work!

I feel like I've grown so much already in the gospel and in my testimony. It's great to be able to completely submerse yourself into a "career" where it is completely centered on the gospel and serving others. I have been learning so much It's great! Now that I've finished the Book of Mormon in my studies I'll be moving over to the NewTestament and studying that more too! It'll be great. I love it!

Love.
Elder Serrano