Baptisms (1/22/15)

January 22, 2014

Well this week went really well, we received 30 new missionaries and sent 22 off. My companion, I and the APs have been left without any sleep at all and we are dead, but still chugging along somehow. The foot is doing okay, but I am just ready to have the cast off now. I want to be able to walk normally and get back to a normal life (everything is so much harder on crutches). Well last week was a great week, we worked really hard and ended up having two baptisms here and I also got the photos of the baptisms of the people I was teaching in my other area before I fractured my ankle. I heard about the Sea-hawks win and I’m pretty pumped about that. Hope they can go the distance again. This week seems to have flashed by so I am just going to attach the 4 pictures of the 4 baptismal photos and explain each investigator. 

1. Antonio. Antonio is the one on the right next to my companion Elder Ortiz. Antonio was a reference from a member in the Puerta Grande ward where I was a zone leader. He has a few tattoos, gauges, and dresses a little gangster. At first sight you would probably pass a first judgment but he is awesome. He is reading the book of Mormon just about every day and is in Jacob. He loves the church and ever since the first lesson we had with him he has been a golden investigator. He had a few troubles giving up smoking but only smoked a few cigarette in the week and gave it up to get baptized. 

2. Maria de Refujio (Cucita). This happened the Sunday after I officially got put again as financial secretary, so Elder Goodrich is there with my companion Elder Ortiz. Maria was another reference from a member. The member found her in a hair salon and just started talking to her and the topic changed to religion. Maria was raised catholic her whole life but loves reading the bible. After studying the bible a lot she came to the conclusion that the Catholic Church can’t be the right church because there were so many faults. Long story short the member sent us over to teach her and she is AMAZING. The first lesson that we taught she told us that she wanted to find the true church so that she could share it with everyone else. She has given us 5 references since we started teaching her and according to Elder Goodrich one of the references is a family that is AMAZING. The have a baptismal date for the Sunday that I should be getting back. 

3. Daniel. Daniel is a young man who is 20 and the rest of his family are members. Longs story short his mom got divorced a while ago and got married to an ex missionary from Utah. After a while they got to know the missionaries and his mom and sister were baptized about one year ago, but he was a little rebellious and wanted nothing to do with the church. Recently he had gone through some rough times and had some bad experiences due to his rebelliousness. He saw how happy the church made his mom and sister and said he wanted to get baptized. He is such a cool fun guy and is so much fun to talk to. He is really loving and funny and we always joke around that he looks like Jacob from twilight (my best looking convert ;))

4. Felipa. Last but not least Felipa. Felipa before we met here was a hard core catholic. She went to church every Sunday, worships the virgin and was a die hard catholic. We worked really hard with her and since the first day we taught her she had felt that she was "being pushed towards this religion" even though her family was really against her getting baptized. She ended up accepting a baptismal date and everything was going well until the night of her baptism. She went to church that Sunday to complete her 4th attendance but then had to go work until 6. Her baptism was planned with the baptism of a family that the sisters were teaching at 7. My companion and I waited outside for felipa and she didn't show up. My companion and I were both really kinda down but we didn't give up hope we said a prayer, then another and another and continued to wait outside for her even thought the baptismal program had already started. We then got a text from the sisters saying that they were moving on to complete the actual ordinance so we went inside to watch. After the second baptism of 4 she showed up. We were so happy, she got changed and baptized by the bishop right away, so the photo that we have of her is after her baptism. 

Well this was a great week over all, I love the mission and I love seeing these people that I love change their lives and decide to get baptized!!!

Love,

Elder Adams