Hello Family and Friends,
Where do I start with the week? The fact that we have amazing investigators, we are working out booties off, the weather has become a little bit more tolerable, and we ALMOST had a baptism. Almost, like about the closest you can get.
First, the people we are teaching. This is definitely the most interesting group of people. We have 8 people that could get baptized this month. EIGHT. We found a family with 6 kids that are AMAZING. I have been praying since the moment I got here to find families like the Lord gave to us in San Rafael. Familia Sanchez. One day we were walking home in this neighborhood near the pension and a little girl came up to me and said she always sees me and wants to know when she can go to church with us. Ok miracle or what??? Her name in Maite (10) and her sister Maria (12) and Carlos (15) are AMAZING. They have never been to church and want to go to every activity and read everything we give them. The parents are a little behind but will get there. The other siblings are 6, 4, and 3 so too little for baptism.
Cristina. Age 55. She has had epilepsy since she was 13. Her family treats her terribly and it is really hard to watch. People here are still a little far behind the times in the medical knowledge and her family thinks she has epilepsy because she is mentally crazy or Satan knows she is weak and takes over her. Not at all. No one wants to take care of her and just want to send her to a hospital even though she only has seizures like once every week. Really, we have been around her a ton and is very smart and knows exactly what she wants. But, since they cant find an exact cure or remedy she does still have seizures and so she is dependant on her mom. Her mom does not like the church for various crazy reasons. So this complicates things, but we finally got her mom Carmen to like us and we got her all ready for baptism because she had been going to church for a month.
Well, as she changed her clothes into the white dress and was about to get into the fount (we were waiting for one more witness for the baptism who was running late) she had a seizure. I was sooooooooo sad!! I couldn't believe it. The members knew she was epileptic but freaked out. Hna Call and I took care of her and called a taxi to take her home because she was pretty out of it afterwards. We were just so bummed because her mom saw us coming home and she first thing she said was ¨it is a sign she shouldn't be learning these things¨. She told us not to come back.
So, we walked home in silence not knowing what to do. How did it go from Hna Call´s first baptism to not having contact with our special investigator. We prayed and tried to sleep that night but not much sleep as you could imagine. But don't worry. When all things go terribly wrong on the mission, it is because there is about to be something great happen.
Sunday morning came around and we started our wild goose chase picking up the investigators. Well, this has never happened but we had 6 NEW investigators come to church for the first time this week. The Stake President was there and met them all, the ward took them in and they all loved it. Cristina couldn't come because her mom was still mad at us and one other person´s aunt died died and couldn't come so we would of had 8. Amazing no? We showed them all the baptismal fount and they are progressing amazingly. I was SO So SO happy!
So last night Hermana Call and I sat on the bed and laughed and almost cried and sighed mainly. Did all that really happened within 24hours? One investigator upon entering the baptismal waters had a seizure, we then ran around for 3hours the following morning with almost no sleep waking up people to got to church, and then 6 amazing new investigators came to church. Oh also I forgot to add that our piano player moved out of the ward. So guess who used her kindergarten piano skills to play in front of the WHOLE congregation for sacrament meeting in front of the Stake Presidency?? Yup, shout out to my piano teacher in Ohio and my amazing mother who made me take the lessons. I plead apologies for complaining, you were right. Piano is important. Top hand and an occasional bottom note were good enough I guess. Hna Call and I are practicing during siesta a few times a week now. You never know what kind of crazy talents you can develop on the mission.
I am pooped. Not sure if that is missionary language but it is how I feel. To get these people going we are going to do family home evenings almost every night with members and the investigators and work like crazy women. Please pray for us, but even more for them. The names are Cristina Villafona, Juan Valdez, Mario Pena, Agustin Esequivel, Alberto Zapate, Maria, Maite and Carlos Sanchez. Thank you for the prayers, I will be praying for you.
Love you all!!
