This week has been, by far, one of my best weeks in the mission. On Saturday, we had a baptism for Valeria. It was awesome! Beforehand, we had to get everything ready which included filling the baptismal font. The drain wasn’t working , so I had to go outside and manually turn the hatch to get it to work, and I didn't even have to call Rob Ogden! lol. (inside joke) Besides some stress, Saturday was amazing, The service was great and the spirit was so strong. Elder Carney baptized her and I had the opportunity to confirm her a member of the church. It is absolutely amazing to see people change their lives. In just a 2 month period Valeria has gone from having no real knowledge of the church to being a member! And she lives 100 yards or so from the church. Crazy!
Kind of a backtrack here, but before Valeria’s baptism, we had a lesson with her and watched The Testament (a church movie) with ether that was so powerful. It is a great film! Afterwards, she closed our meeting with a prayer and said one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard someone say! The spirit was so strong in that moment. It was incredible; a mission miracle for sure!
On Sunday, we had our meetings at the church beforehand and then finished the final hour with sacrament meeting( they hold the three hour block of meetings here different). I confirmed Valeria a member and gave her a blessing afterward, which was a really neat experience. We also had one of our investigators show up to church who has a baptismal date. His name is Venel. He is the man from Haiti. Such a cool guy who is very receptive to our message. He really enjoyed church and said that he wants to come every Sunday!!
As for the rest of my week, I went on divisions again with Elder Martinez in his area and had such a great time! I learned a lot. There home was almost broken into at night, so they all sleep with metal rods under their mattresses. lol. I had such a great P-Day today! Played a ton of soccer and ping pong. It was a blast.
Yes, those are his feet on the ceiling
As I thought about what I want to share with you guys, I want to talk about the notecards that my parents wrote me. So in all of my shirts and pants, my parents wrote notes on index cards of inspirational quotes, etc… Anyway, I carry a different one with me every day in my pocket, on my shirt. One card I carried this week said,
“Work like it is all on you,
Have faith that it is all on Him”
To me there is a lot of meaning and truthfulness in that.I need to work hard with the perception that they are dependent on me, however, I need to have faith that they will come unto the Lord. I think that too many people are expecting a miracle or a miraculous sign from God to reveal them the truth. This perception is entirely wrong. We need to exercise our faith through actions. When we do this; when we act like it is all dependent on us, in turn, the truth will be revealed unto us. I believe that our road to Damascus is through faith and works.
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Mom Note: There was a 6.4 Magnitude Earthquake outside of Santiago this week. All is well. Just wanted to document it for Matthew. I can't wait to see what he writes about it this week. :)
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