Welcome to Elias

Greetings from Bonaire!

We have been talking about having English classes since we got here in January. Hermano Solarin said he wanted to start one and then it never happened, everything got in the way of the class - vacations, illness of his wife who had to go to Columbia, weather, he is a painter so he had to paint a government building. Finally months later in about September the Sisters just said, the lessons would be on Tuesday evenings at 7pm!

Hermano Solarin - Branch Mission Leader -  and Elias

  

Elias was their first student. He heard about the lessons from his  friend  Hermano Solarin. The Sisters were good teachers and they started with a prayer and a spiritual thought or scripture.  After the first lesson they gave him a pamphlet on the Restoration of the Gospel in English so he could practice during the week. He had taken online English lessons before, so he was motivated. We were unable to attend very many of the lessons, but when we did it was fun to watch and participate a little.

We soon heard that after each English lesson they were teaching him the gospel so he was getting a missionary lesson each week as well. 

Sister Ramirez - (from Orem Utah), Elias, Sister Bennion - (from Orem Utah)  Elias was taught by several sets of missionaries. These are the two who were here for the special day.

He continued coming to church meetings and made friends with members of the Branch.
He enjoyed coming to the baptisms and taking pictures.
He is a very kind, gentle, quiet, and soft spoken man. He is originally from Venezuela. He works at a local jewelry shop as a Rolex watch repair man and he has studied in Switzerland to learn his trade.

7:45 AM on the Caribbean Sea at Bachelor's Beach

The baptism was at 7am Sunday morning December 27th. The Beach was different this time, a little closer to the church for ease in getting back in time for our 9:00 AM sacrament meeting and the confirmation..There were steep stairs going down into the sea.

Down into the churning sea!

 It had been raining for 2 days and the forecast was for rain on Sunday as well, but just from the hours of 7-9 it didn't rain and the sun was shinning. The cold water did not bother Elias and he told the Sisters how peaceful he felt when he came out of the water.

Elias coming out of the waters of baptism

 The blue sky was full of big white cumulus clouds and it was beautiful. They took the steep stairs straight down into the sea and big waves washed over Elias, Hermano Solarin and the 2 Elders as the ordinance was performed. Everyone was soaking wet!

The water was deep

   It was another wonderful day for a baptism and we were all so glad that we had come to welcome another member into our growing Bonaire Branch.

Members of the Branch who came that morning

Witness -  Elder Jennings and Sister Bennion