Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Another baptism this week- and superglued fingers...

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

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