No Seriously, Always. Check. The. Water.

June 3, 2013

Elder W, my zone leader is leaving next change 

Sooooo ironically this week we had somewhat of a similar experience as the Elders I spoke about in the earlier post ¨Always. Check. The. Water.¨ haha so thatll be fun to talk about, but first things first!

     So this week went by really fast considering that now im thinking about how its gonna be a bummer when me and P have to split up which will most likely be next tuesday. And i might get called to a new area too b/c they might replace our area with sister missionaries! Crazy I knowww! But anyway so on tuesday i went on splits with Elder A who is a way chill guy. He can be a little much sometimes haha but he is way funny and we had a sickkk day hanging out, teaching, eating, and studying in his area for a day. Then the next day i did the same thing againnnn haha i went to the zone leaders area with Elder C and we were super busy alll day longg! 

     Okay so here starts some of the really awesome news!! So on Friday we went and got Familia S married! So in the morning around 11 oclock we went to Cholula about 45 minutes away and there is a member of the church there who works for the state and is licenced to perform marriages, which is good because it means missionaries can get people married reallll quick! So we got them married which was awesome! But heres the thing - the dad of the family works 24 hour shifts at his job, 24 hours on and then 24 hours off. So in order to get them baptized on Sunday we had to get them married and baptized in the same day! 

So then we ran back to the church and got the font cleaned and it was like 4:30 and the baptism was supposed to be at 5 oclock. So we rushed to get everything ready and we were able to have the baptism at the right time. We got to baptize the dad and the three kids of the family for a total of 4 baptisms and we are still working with the mom. Sooo I got to baptize one of the kids D (10) and i asked him his full name and he said a mumbo jumbo of spanish that i didnt completely catch haha so i did the prayer but they made me do it again becasue i didnt say the last name right -__- but hey its cool, if any of you reading along can pronounce ¨(sorry folks mom  had to edit out the name, but trust me it is difficult)¨ I will let you come do the next ordinance haha So it was a really cool experience! Butttttt you are probably wondering how this all ties in to the title of the email.....well guess what....that wasnt the ONLY baptism we had!! 

The very next day we also had the baptisms of a lady L and her 2 kids! So three in total! But.....we had some serious issues with this one haha haha so a little bit of background: The baptism was scheduled for 12 oclock noon and we got there 2 hours early to get everything ready. So we turn on the font....but funny story, no water came out. Weird right?! So we turn on some other faucets and nothing comes out again....sooo now we are really panicing and we start calling people. But nobody is answering and those who do dont really know whats going on. So heres the problem. Mexico is different from the United States (shocking i know) and so the water here works a little differently. Here in Mexico, water comes 2x a week and all we do is fill up what is known as a cistern, which if you have read my previous posts, is my very bitter nemesis. Sooo we come to the conclusion that there must not be any water in the cistern...but we dont have keys to unlock the cover and check. So we are on our last hope talking to a lady who is in the ward who lives down the street from us. But when that didnt work, we were fresh out of options. So we did the only thing we could which was to stagger back to the house despaired, dejected and defeated. When we got inside i got the impression that we should pray...but as you can imagine, i was in absolutely noooo mood to pray. But luckily, Elder P had the same impression and was more receptive. So he suggested we pray. As we knelt down i couldnt help but think of that scene from The Best Two Years haha ¨And please bless this young man that he may call....RINGGGGG¨ So anyway P lays it all out for the Lord and finishes the prayer, and before i can even stand up there is a knock at our door and the woman from down the street is calling out ¨Elders!¨ Basically she had finally gotten in contact with someone who we called, who met us at the church, who opened the cistern, who told us there was no water. So we ended up having to call a service (which is very common here) to come and pump water into the cistern....only the cistern was dirty so we just had them put the pipe straight through the window of the baptismal font and i held a pipe that almost knocked me off my feet while it sprayed water into the font....it filled in 5 minutes haha thats how fast the water was. Anwyays we got to baptize the family and I ended up getting my second baptism which was FP! So over the weekend we got a total of 7 baptisms!!!! But wait theres more!!! If you act now and work hard for these 7 baptisms, we will also throw in 7 confirmations ABSOULUTELY FREE!! Only here's the catch...you have to confirm them in front of the entire church on the stand during sacrament meeting! haha But me and P went over the prayer a few times so i could memorize it (it aint short either) and i confirmed 4 people along with blessings, without messing up! It was really really awesome! So overall it was definitely the best week of my mission so far! 

Me holding the pipe for the water for the font!!

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        So this is already a reallyyyyy long email so its gonna be a quickk spiritual thought this week! Its hard to adequately describe the gift of the Holy Ghost to an investigator and help them to know just what a big deal it is. But for anyone out there who may be investigating the church or could just use a quick testimony booster, let me share a little of mine. The Holy Ghost is the greatest gift that God has given to man on this Earth.  Jeffrey R. Holland said ¨I am amazed at the ready access we have to a member of the Godhead, so long as we live worthy of that channel.¨ The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead that has no other purpose but to testify of truth, guide us, direct us, and help us in our lives. What a great gift we truely have! Dont ever take this incredible blessing for granted. Be worthy of it, be in tune with it, and be grateful for it.

Thanks for everything!  Love you all!

Me in Food Form!!! haha