And we sure have been talking to a
lot of people these past days. Elder Ballard a few weeks back has issued the
promise that if every missionary would contact 10 additional people every day
they would see changes and success in the mission like never before. So that
means 20 contacts per day, 140 additional people to talk to every week apart
from our lessons and other duties as missionaries. And man is that promise
true. Promises from prophets are great!
So about the whole earthquake thing…
I am completely fine... Nothing at all happened as north as I am. There was a
tsunami warning and many of the missionaries in our mission had to evacuate
their houses and head to the hills but what was called a tsunami ended up being
3 meter waves... Which is so surf able. But who does need your prayers is
everyone who was affected by the quaking... Our stake in T sur is doing a food
drive for them. We collected a lot when everyone gathered to the stake building
for general conference. I know it might just be a little thing but service is
service and people need our help if we have the means to do so.
This past Tuesday for district class
we learned about how to teach people, according to their needs instead of just
spitting out scripture verses to them. One of the greatest things I think about
the mission I thing is being able to teach people. I love teaching because it
is so personal. I have the opportunity to get to know people, truly know them,
find out their hopes, dreams, desires, and help them understand their divine
potential as sons and daughters of God. This week we were walking to a lesson
when I received the impression to contact this one house. As a zone we have
stopped door contacting for a while now, but I really felt that we should. So
we did. It turns out that this guy Herbeth (weird name right... no offense to
anyone who will ever read this blog who has the name Herbeth) is a less active
member of the church for more than 15 years. He is addicted to every type of
thing you could be addicted to and sees no future in his life what so ever. We
had the blessing to get to know this guy and teach him of the atonement of our
Savior Jesus Christ, that no matter what we have done, no matter what we have
been through, no matter how far we have fallen he will be right there to help
us up. Because he’s been through the same. He is the only one who knows us and
can give us hope.
This Sunday we had a baptism of
Celestina del Carmen Pozo Bustos! I think that this baptism perhaps was the
most disorganized, dysfunctional and utterly hilarious baptism that I have ever
been to, heard of, or witnessed. This lovely old lady Carmen planned on getting
baptized the Sunday of conference before the meeting. We had her baptism
interview planned for Tuesday but she thought that her baptism was that day, so
instead of waiting for us at her house she decided to go looking for us with
her towel and change of clothes... but she doesn’t know how to use a phone and
doesn’t know where we live so she was roaming the streets looking for us as we
were waiting and then eventually wandering the streets as well trying to find
her.. Eventually she gave up and went to her daughter’s house in Panco... Which
is like 3 hours away... Finally she had her interview the next day when we
found her... and passed! Everything was ready and prepared but she
couldn’t choose between my companion and I who was to baptize her... So we
flipped a coin, and Elder Castro won (first mistake... I now know that you
should never flip a coin to determine who will perform an ordinance of the
Lord...That’s doctrine according to Sayre, I would follow it) we planned to
have her baptized in the stake center instead of our building and because it
was a much farther walk we decided to take a bus, we didn’t know what bus would
get us their however, confident and crazy Carmen said she could get us their
without a problem. Next thing we know we are in an industrial park.
Finally we got back to the church
building and prepared for the baptism an hour before conference. As she was
changing in the stall in the bathroom the door was jammed and she couldn’t get
it open... She kept screaming and banging on the door "dejame salir
satanas!" "Let me out of here Satan!" because she was thoroughly
convinced that Satan was the cause behind all of her troubles... Eventually,
with help from a little girl and elder who had to climb over and crawl over the
stall, she got out.
As she was walking into the fount
she slipped and fell... hurting her back... but... again blaming it on the
devil was determined to continue.
At this moment she told my companion
that she was afraid of water. He being a very wonderful but very new missionary
doesn’t quite know how to baptize people who are scared of water so he tried his
best but... had to try many times... with a chair and without..and there I was
standing on the side lines just trying to coach my son on how to baptize like a
frustrated dad does when he’s teaching his son how to throw a ball and he
doesn’t do it right.. I was stressing out hard core... but the fifth time is a
charm! And she was baptized! 5 min before conference started we ended the
baptism.
I do have to look on the positive
side... after the baptism she said that her back pain went away... Along with
her sins! Yeahhh baptisms are the best!
I don’t have time to talk about how
freaking awesome conference was but I will devote my time next week to do so. I
have learned so much from this conference and feel spiritually full and
bursting with insights and knowledge, I’m but please tell me I was the only one
to think of those animal circus cookies when I saw the choir for the afternoon
session on Saturday (they are officially the circus cookie choir in my
book...if you don’t know what I mean go back and look at the color of their
shirts)... or when the guy who talked about the Olympians and their 4 minute
performance stared to sing that song.. 4 minutes by Justin Timberlake and
Madonna...
I love you
guys!
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