AH
stress!!!
I have so incredibly
much to write and not nearly enough time!!
Ok, well for starters,
we had another baptism this week, with a guy named Martin. What a
story...
SO this guy was the
investigator of Hma W and Hma DL, and was supposed to get baptized two
times before, but both times he got cold feet and canceled his baptism, said
maybe later he would try again when his parents don't have so much influence on
him. So they stopped visiting him.
HOWEVER like 2 days
before Hma de Leon left, he came to church again. Turns out he has a girlfriend
who is a member, and she goes to Huerta, the branch right before us. So we
start teaching him again, and at first he's still hesitant, but finally we
commit him to be baptized again, this time for real. And we met with him and
his girlfriend every week and he was going to church and we were so sure he was
ready for this, and so like a week ago we changed his baptism date to this past
Saturday (the 7th) and he accepted. SO we were all excited and everything was
going to be great, and then Saturday comes and he calls us and tells us that he
wants to cancel his baptism again.
So we`re about to
start our English/ piano classes that we give every Saturday morning in the
chapel, but we emergency ask the Hermanas of Huerta to take over so we can talk
to Martin. So he`s on his way and we call in his brother Roberto for backup,
who is this super active member and he's awesome, runs all the way to the
church and comes in all sweaty. And so we ask Martin what’s up., He says he
doesn't want to feel rushed and that maybe it’s not the right time for him and
yadda yadda.... and I have no idea what I'm going to say to him, all I know is
that I have to change his mind and I'm praying like crazy for the words to
come. Then I start talking and I realize I'm being kinda super hard on him, but
I keep going. I tell him that he KNOWS this church is true and he KNOWS he
needs to get baptized, he's just giving in to Satan’s temptations and delaying
his own salvation. And its dead silent (we're in the sacrament meeting room)
and it’s just me talking but it's pretty intense. Then I remember some
scriptures HT and I were reading that morning in D&C 121 when Joseph Smith
was suffering in jail, and asking where God is hiding, and I read the verse
that says something like "Thine adversity and afflictions will be but a
small moment...." but I read it with his name, as if he were talking to
him. Then all of a sudden, he starts crying. Like, sobbing. So I stopped and had no idea what to say. I
have never made someone cry before like that so it kinda took me by surprise.
So we sit there a few minutes in silence and HT asks him what he's feeling,
then he breaks down and tell us that he doesn't feel like his family supports
him (And this is the same problem he had before, his parents are like anti
mormon and don't want him to get baptized. Roberto got baptized cause he's
kinda a rebel and doesn't care what his parents say haha)
So then we read
D&C 31 when its talking to Thomas B Marsh about having to leave his family
to go on a mission, and the promises of the Lord to him, and then everyone
starts crying, including me ‘cause this is the same scripture that HG read to
me my first week here in the mission when it was super hard and I wanted to
give up. Well in the end he agreed to go forth with his baptism so we're super
relieved and go on with our day. Then like an hour later, we go talk to our
missionary leader Andres to remind him to fill up the baptismal font (cause it
takes about 2 hours to fill up) and get the baptism clothes and all that jazz,
and he then proceeds to tell us that the font has a burst pipe, and we can't
fill it up. And it’s like 2:30. and the baptism is at 6. SO we start stressing
out again a little, and we call the elders of Sierra to see if we can use their
church for the baptism cause ours is busted and on top of that they're
repairing the bathrooms and there’s dirt everywhere and so yeah. The elders say
its fine but they're like 30 minutes away in their little town, so we have to
call someone else who has keys to the chapel of Sierra, and nobody answers for
a while but we finally get a hold of their branch president, and he says that
he can meet us in 20 minutes in the chapel to open the door and help set up. So
we call Martin to ask if it’s ok that now his baptism is in Sierra, and he says
all serious "let me call you back in a minute" and we're like AHHHH
he's having doubts again!! And at this point I feel like the babysitter, like
" Where’s the kid? Is he happy? Is he crying? What's he need? Can someone
watch him while I clean the house? But we have to work out the baptismal font
issue, so we head over to Sierra(we're now with 2 girls from our branch cause I
had forgotten that they were going to accompany us for visits, and so they just
tagged along in this adventure) and we get to the chapel, only to discover that
the font is still full of water from the elders last baptism! Like a month ago.
And the water is NASTY. There’s like bugs and mold and who knows what else in
there. And it’s now like 4:30. We open
the drain but its draining soooo slowly, we grab some buckets and start
scooping the water out and pouring it in the toilets of the bathrooms cause
they're equally nasty cause they're broken and don't flush... But we're kinda
in a hurry and the floors are slippery and I have no shoes on and so somewhere
during this hour I manage to slip and FALL into the nasty baptismal font, and
so now I'm soaked but we have to keep going.
Martin texts back and
says everything is fine again (SIGH OF RELIEF) but he's about to show up and we
have to hurry and clean the font, and fill it up and try to mop up some of the
water on the bathroom floors, and the elders show up and Martin shows up with
his brother and everything’s falling into place, BUT now we have no clothes
cause Andres WAS there helping us but he had to leave for some reason and
nobody knows where he is, but turns out he sent Ronald to go find the clothes
cause Ronald calls us to ask where they are and we're like "we don't know
only Andres knows!!!" and he doesn't have a key and AHHH!! But he manages
to find the key and get the clothes and bring them to the chapel, and now we're
starting like an hour and a half later, but, we start. And I don't breathe out
until he emerges from the water.
And actually the
baptismal service was really nice cause 1- the chapel of Sierra is a lot newer
than ours and a lot prettier, and 2- we had a projector and were showing some
cool inspirational videos, and 3- there were a lot of people who showed up to
the service!
In other news, our
recent convert Fredy has turned into superman and he's paying his tithing, he
now has a calling as the branch secretary, goes to all the meetings, fulfills all
his responsibilities, ALREADY has the melchizedek priesthood, and is progressing
so fast that I think I might actually be able to see him get sealed in the
temple:) you have to wait at least a year after a baptism to get sealed in the
temple and he got baptized in April and I'm leaving in April, but who knows??
fingers crossed!
In other other news, Hma
T superglued her fingers together this week. It took us like 30 minutes of
freaking out and like 2 hours of soaking in nail polish remover but thanks to Ronald
and our branch president’s wife, she's good now.
Also I'm learning Maya.
And it’s raining so
much here.
Ok I have to go now
but I love you all and sorry to everyone who I wasn't able to email! I'll email
you next week!!
HS