January 25, 2015

Well this week we spent most of our time preparing our investigator Blanca Santos for her baptism. On Tuesday we went and visited her and she said that she had a lot of doubts about getting baptized. She told us that she wanted to delay her baptism until the problems in her life had stopped and when she felt ready.

We knew that she was ready now, so we listened to all of her concerns and gave her our full support. We then shared scriptures of strength and comfort with her. Then we shared our testimonies with her. Then elder Jarman challenged her to be baptized again. We waited in silence as she decided what she was going to do. 1 or 2 minutes passed in silence. The holy ghost was working on her. Then she responded that she was ready to get baptized. 

Then Thursday she past her baptismal interview. To be honest she was in the interview for over two hours... she loves to talk... during that time my companion, I and Elder Nordhoff sat around and talked. We also had to watch over Leonardo Blancas little boy. Leonardo is a trouble maker...

Saturday the baptismal was planned at 4 o clock but everything in Peru seems to run late, I guess it is just their culture. We showed up at 230 to clean up the chapel and make sure the font was good. That was a hassle by itself. By time the font was ready it was already 4. Yet no one was there yet. The baptism did not start until 530. 

The part that was the most strange is when Blanca went to get into the font her kid would not let go of her. He screamed and cried and he would not leave his mom. After 15 minutes of his crying... meanwhile my companion is still standing in the font...the ward mission leader just picked up the kid and ran him outside. Blanca was baptized and all was well. Leonardo was fine afterwards but man way to make a scene.

Sunday we went on splits with members of the bishopric to pickup and invite people to church. Then it was sacrament meeting. Blanca didn´t show up until half way through. We were worried she would not come and be confirmed into the church and receive the holy ghost, but all in all everything went well.

Well I have one complete change in the mission field and 2 complete changes overall. One baptismal down and more people to teach.

This sunday we heard of all the transfers happening around the district and zone. Luckily my comp and I were not being transferred, but my district leader was leaving and his companion elder Nordhoff. I will really miss them... Elder Nordhoff is from sandy, utah he was really cool to get to know. I am glad he has transfers though because he has been in Dorado for over 6 months since the beginning of his mission. Sadly dorado, my zone, is one of the worst in the mission. It is dangerous... and there is not much to do on pdays. But I still love it.
 Today we played soccer and went to the grocery store for pday.