A Spectacular Week!

Diana's Baptism Day

Hola Familia!

Wow, this week was awesome!! It FLEW by until about Saturday, and Saturday and Sunday were just plain spectacular. :) Also, thank you all for your letters, I love you all so so much and I think about you all the time!! Chase, thank you for your experience with Español, it gives me greater hope and desire to persevere! Also, I got letters and packages this week!! Elder Arce, an elder in our district, had to fly to Lima for Visa stuff earlier this week and when he returned he brought a box full of stuff for ME from the mission office in Piura! I think usually they hand stuff out at zone conferences, which are the first Thursdays of every month! Also, I think everything makes it here relatively quick, I know for sure within a month, but I don't really know otherwise yet, but I will tell you when I find out!

Ok, yesterday, the baptism with Diana happened!! I had my first baptism within 12 days in the mission field! ¡Qué loco! It was a great experience. Diana is a very shy girl and she always puts her hands up to hide her mouth because she is so timid to talk and do things. So I think she was a little nervous about the whole thing. I was also kinda nervous with it being my first time... I had never been taught how to baptize. All week I have been reciting and practicing the baptismal ordination, and I knew about how you put your arm to the square, and hold their wrist with the other. But we were both nervous to get into the cold water. (Oh! It was at la Arbolada, a pool here in Sechura, that I think a lot of baptisms are held. We had a rooster crowing nearby during the whole service... jaja) And we start the service and when we go to immerse her, she was bending back and her face got about half way down and she started coming back up. And I was thinking, no... You gotta go all the way! So I think she had a second of fear while I was still working down but I quickly let up. I felt SO. BAD. Like, I gave a million pardons for my mistakes. haha But then the second time we both got some instruction from Elder Inocente and Elder Navarrete (the district leader) and we did it a second time. She was shivering even! But then I recited the ordination and she was immersed in water for baptism. And right there, I could feel she was baptized. I knew it was valid. I don't know how to explain it, but I could feel the remission of sins, I could feel her being cleansed. She came up, and she was smiling. After the first unsuccessful run, I was feeling so apologetic and I was just hoping that Diana was feeling good, but now, after the fact I am realizing how WONDERFUL I even felt in ME! That was so special. And the service was great too, we had a little talk by another girl in the primary, a special musical number by the newly formed Sechura Rama Coro, formed that day. jaja! They sang the song "A Child's Prayer" I believe it is. The one that goes "Heavenly Father, Are you really there? And do you hear and answer every child's prayer," That one. But in Spanish. LOVED IT!

She will be confirmed next Sunday by Elder Inocente, I think. Then that night we all went over to their house for cake! Celebrating her baptism, and ALSO her baby brothers birthday that day too! So that was fun getting together with a lot of members and celebrating the day!

Our work this last week was AWESOME! We smashed our goal for investgator lessons, and hope to do it again, but now also do a little more focusing on less active and recent converts. And our new investigators has been basically on track! A family we are teaching wanted a lesson on patience, so we talked about patience, and attributes of Christ, and the importance of following the example of Christ. And I think that we have a beautiful tie there to baptism, so I think we are going to get on that road. And also, we have a new investigator. We were heading back to the apartment at night when they called out to say hi! We were introduced and we all set up a time to meet and talk about what we do! Our first lesson went great! We had been practicing a lot from the "How to Begin Teaching" portion from Preach my Gospel and we put that to use and it worked out! We taught about our loving Heavenly Father and how the gospel blesses families and how we can pray to know. Then we invited them to Church and also to the Baptismal service! She was like "Yeah!! Let's go!" We both think that she is sincerely interested in learning about this!

Things with my companion are AWESOME now!! We both have different ideas, I am a very goal oriented person. I forget the names of people so planning can become frustrating to him because of me. And one night we both kinda just cracked, since I wanted to hit the goal, and he just wanted to help the right people. So I think we both learned, now he has taught me that I need to focus on LOVING the PEOPLE, not the numbers. The numbers and goals are important in measuring the work and evoking the work in us, and I think he is growing to understand that a little more, but I have grown so much more to work out of LOVE. Elder Inocente is one of the most loving people I know, and he is here for the right reason!! And He works hard! And he is teaching me.

I have not yet taught English, although we usually do that every Saturday night at 7. But this last Saturday we had a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with Diana's family. We taught about the strength of the family, importance of scriptures and prophets, then played UNO! It was a blast!

The leadership in the Rama is great! The Branch Mission President is awesome! His name is Elder Fasabe, and I think very highly of him!! He is very intelligent in the gospel and loves to laugh too! We do a lot of lessons with him and meet with him often too. I think he is our biggest asset of missionary work in the branch.The Pensionista does not do our laundry, there is another branch member that does that for us. The members are very helpful in the work!!

Well, I better go now, Thank you all for all of your help!! You have no idea how much you all strengthen me! I love you all!! Keep loving the gospel and choosing the right! The strength of this gospel is greater than anything else on this earth!! I love you!!

 Baptism/Birthday Celebration

The view from my apartment