August 28th

(when Elder Berto uses "Rich" or "Elder Rich" - he is referring to Elder Richardson - his companion
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I'll go ahead and share some positive things though. Basically my comp is a straight up stud! So J_____, the guy from one of the pics, wasn't really progressing and it was almost time for us to move on. But Rich had this idea where we could be relatable with the guy but also work with him spiritually as well. J____ is a pretty nutty guy (I have so many other stories about him as well haha) who enjoys running, lifting etc. So what we do, this is every other day, is we wake up at 5 am and meet him at his house early in the morning and work out and lift at his place till around 630 or so. Then we go on a run where we run about 2 or 3 miles till we get to downtown Providence (the city is amazing by the way, I gotta take some pics sometime). We run around the city for a while and then we eventually head back to his house where we have breakfast and where we have a lesson prepared for him and everything. It sounds crazy but it has actually worked! We have already set up another baptismal date for the guy for next month and now we're hoping he can be able to come to church with us this sunday. So yeah, what's awesome is that my companion is very good with being relatable with everybody. It's really important to have good relationships with the people that you work with. That's what I've really come to learn from Elder Richardson is how to relatable to people and to just be yourself.  

Another quick thing, about a week ago Elder Rich and I were riding our bikes and were doing a little street contacting on our way to one of our appointments. We handed this Puerto Rican guy a pass along card and he later told us that he used to be a member about 20 years ago. His name is B____. He has tattoos all over his body, crazy piercings, and owns a tattoo shop as well. W never would've thought he would've been a member before, just by the way he looked. He knew all about the church and told us that he had the desire to repent and now wants to step foot into church again, after not having gone in 20+ years. It was an incredible experience to work with him and to now help him get back into church and to be active again. He is going to come with us this Sunday.

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