"we`re experiencing ensign moments here man!" and it just made me
smile, because i knew exactly what he meant :) This week has been
another awesome week, and I am still so grateful to be here on a
mission.
A few weeks ago I was a little sick and we couldnt go to church or
work for a few days. While we were in the house our pensionistas
daughter called us and said "I wanna be baptized!" we told her we
could probably help her out with that. When we went to their house
again we talked to her and gave her a baptismal date for Nov 12. She
accepted! This week we were preparing for her interview and baptism
and Wednesday she told us "Hermanas, I don`t want to get baptized
anymore" umm... what?? She said she wanted to learn more and she
didn`t feel ready, and it was pretty rough. We talked to her, prayed
with her, did everything we could think of and nothing. Rough stuff.
Thursday we had a zone meeting and the zone leaders asked if our
baptism was still on... no we told them. BUmmer deal. They gave us
some more ideas, but the whole time i just felt like we needed to talk
about the plan of salvation. All of her family are members and if she
wants to be with them after this life she needs to be baptized.
Thursday we went to eat lunch, and she didn`t talk to us. Not really a
good sign. Friday we went again and had decided to talk to her. She
basically told us, sorry, I don`t have time, but we didn`t really
listen :) haha we just started talking to her. Taught the plan of
salvation and asked if she wanted to be with her family forever, she
said yes. We asked what she needed to do, and she said "well do you
think i can be baptized tomorrow in the morning?" haha umm... we could
work that out. My mind was reeling - how can we get her interviewed
and ready.... what else do we need for her baptism. We decided Sunday
in the afternoon would be better. She is really timid and didn`t want
to receive the holy ghost in front of everyone so we had talked to the
bishp and he said it would be alright to confirm her in the same
baptismal service.
Saturday morning the elders came again to help with our screens in our
windows (no exciting adventures with crazy dogs or water boys), and we
told them! She had accepted to be baptized again! We explained about
the holy ghost and they said we had better ask president calderòn if
thats alright. We called him right then and basically he said the the
1st presidency and the 12 apostles have said that it the confirmation
is such a sacred ordinance that it needs to be done in the most sacred
meeting in the church - sacrement meeting. And that because she was
timid, wasn`t a good enough reason to change it. ummm... ya esta bien
presidente i told him :) I guess he ahd a point :)
We left with the elders to go to a zone service project and in the
taxi we told Elder palmer what Presidente had told us. Elder palmer
said why don`t you baptize her tonight then, I think the font is still
full.. haha um ya, we`ll give it a try. We talked to Elder craig (DL)
to see if he could come right after lunch for her interview and as we
cleaned we thought about we could tell her. We were thinking something
ilke this "So valeria, todays a good day right? a perfect day for a
baptism! Why not just get baptized tonight? Esta bien? Oh good,
because elder craig is on his way to interview you..." haha amazing
she was fine with all of it. Thats basically how it al went down.
Elder craig, he passed her interview, and then hna broome nd i left at
4pm with three hours to get everything ready for her baptism! First we
ran to find an hermano to baptize her. Then we ran to the church to
make sure the font was full - it wasn`t haha We started it and said a
little prayer that it would fill up super fast. Then we ran home and
called everyone!
The baptism was great. She had to get dunked three times, and after
the second one almost gave up. BUt a miracle happened, and it all
worked out, the water came up and closed over her head. She is hapy,
We`re happy, and the miracles continue.
Love ya!
PS
Christmas?! Is it time already?? Umm I think peter asked for a bunch
of church DVDs, they would all be awesome to have. Joseph Smith
Prophet of the restoration, the testaments, legacy, one missionary the
joseph smith story of the living testaments, the cartoons, and it was
way cool for a girl we were teaching. Another had a whole bunch of the
mormon messages on a DVD and it worked really good to show at baptims
while the people were changing. It would be super awesome to have some
DVDs. In Spanish of course! :) Also the mosquitos are out in full
force, I could maybe use some more anti-itch cream :) other then that
letters, pictures, and fun things like that :) Thanks so much! You`re
so great!
Do you want anything from Bolivia for Christmas?
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