Emily sent us the following email on Monday, January 27, 2014:

Hola Familia!

Erick got baptized on Saturday and then he received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday! :) I love watching how happy these wonderful people are that enter into a covenant with Heavenly Father. Erick was practically glowing the whole time. He shared a little bit about his feelings and told the few people that had come, " me siento bien y muy puro...etc". It was really sweet. One of our missionary friends, Elder Oakey was able to do the baptism. I know it is important for converts to always be able to have a tie with the person that baptized them and have that person always be living the gospel. Elder Oakey is a very good missionary from Idaho, and I know that he'll always be living his life in a way that will make Heavenly Father proud and Erick can rely on.

Left to Right:  Hermana Herrera, Hermana Christensen, Elder Oakey, & Erick

President Mendez is going to really look after these new and recent converts. I think he is going to try to help them have rides to church. When we drove to church on Sunday, we saw two boys in white shirts riding bikes. One was bigger on a super low bike, and the other was smaller on a taller bike: no doubt Roberto y Erick :) It was the most precious sight!

Yesterday Adrian was sustained to receive the Priesthood the following week in church. He is worried that he isn't worthy, but he completely is. I think President Mendez told him that this would help him really know that he's worthy. Adrian was all smiles too. It'll be good to get some more Sacrament passers in our ramita.

Recently, I had the thought that I should give Meliton a call and see how he was doing. I gave him a call and talked with him for less than 1 minute just to make sure that he was doing alright. Two days later, I had the same thought that I should call him again. I did and he asked us if we'd like to come over that evening. I think it was just to chat. He is now living in a different place, still in my area. I asked him what he'd been up to lately... He's been reading in a book. He's been reading the manual for gospel doctrine. And you know, he has found that he thinks that it matches with the things he's read in the Bible and he told us he doesn't really want to perder su alma (lose his soul). We talked for a while and set a goal date for his baptism. Meliton is going to get baptized on February 9th!

I read something in the green manual for gospel doctrine that I thought was really cool.  It was about how Joseph F. Smith traveled around "reinstituting" the law of tithing.  I mean, this shouldn't have had to happen because tithing has been a law forever and it was made pretty clear to Joseph Smith in the D&C that tithing needs to be paid.  This is why God needs to have prophets on the earth.  Even when the children of God have all the instructions, they can overlook important things and get to a point where they think God must not have really meant a certain thing that he said.  God needs to have prophets that can remind the children of God about his commandments and keep everyone on the same page. 

I love you!

Con amor, Hna. Christensen