Dear Family,
Hello! How was everyone´s week? Our´s was pretty normal,
right up until the end. Let me tell you the story.
Friday morning we got a call from Belén saying she had
something important to tell us. So, we set up an appointment to meet with her
that afternoon in the chapel. She was very excited when she came in and
couldn´t wait to talk to us. She asked if we could baptize her tomorrow. She
explained that she had left one of her jobs so she had the weekend totally free,
but that she was starting a new job and wasn´t sure if she would be free
weekends or not. The only reason we hadn´t baptized her yet was because of her
work schedule. She has been totally ready for awhile. So this was awesome news
for us. At first we weren´t sure how we were going to do it, planning and
preparing everything and inviting members, but in the end we decided that we
shouldn´t wait. So we worked like crazy, with a ton of help from Segundo, our
ward mission leader, and got everything set up for a baptism the next day. She had
her interview at 4:30 on Saturday and was baptized at 7. The baptism turned out
amazing! I don´t know what it was, but everything turned out so good for one
day of preparation. The people she has really made friends with were there, and
the best part of all of it was when Graciela (basically Belén´s best friend in
the church) bore her testimony and welcomed Belén to the ward. Afterword we
walked around the temple together (we had to go to Pavones to do the baptism
because Bishop was out of town) which was awesome. She had wanted to see the
temple for a long time. We got to explain a little about what it is, and
Graciela shared how wonderful her experiences of going into the temple have
been (she just finished a year as a member). It was an awesome night! It was
really good for me, too. I felt again that feeling of this is what it´s all
about, this is what makes it all worth it. To see a person you have come to
love and care about enter into a covenant with God and to know that you have
been a part of that person´s conversion. There is nothing else like it. It is
what gives us as missionaries purpose, and it was really good for me to feel
that again and help me refocus on the passion of the work. It was a great
experience for all of us. I had a big smile on my face all night.
I also have never had such a stressful baptism before. The
whole preparing and finding people to speak and come and getting the font ready
and everything all the day before was stressful. So, also, was the fact that she
called us that night after the baptism to tell us that she had a work interview
the next day at 11. Church starts at 10:30. So I started freaking out again. In
the end there was just no way to do it and so we are just praying that next
week she will be able to come to church and be confirmed. It´s not a big deal,
but it was stressful.
That was definitely the highlight of the week. We haven´t
been able to meet with any of our new investigators this week, Raul or
Estefania. I´m afraid they´re just not that interested. We did have a pretty
intense lesson with Raul, the husband of Graciela, though. He has been an
investigator ever since Graciela started receiving the lessons, over a year
ago, but he won´t get baptized. He says someday he will get baptized, but he
has to feel that it´s time first. So decided to start the lessons again to find
out where his doubt or problem is. It worked pretty well. We were teaching the
first lesson and somehow it came up that he has a problem with the members of
the church. He says that they don´t live what they teach. He gets upset every
Sunday because some people don´t say hi to him. He says he sees a lot of
hypocrisy and he doesn´t like it. He got really riled up and even said he
probably would get baptized except for that. It got a little intense. We explained that people are not perfect, in fact
that is the very reason that go to church, to be better. We invited him to humble himself and not let this impede him from
receiving his answer and his testimony. It was intense, but good. We saw him in
church yesterday and he seemed happy, so that´s good. We´ll see if we start
making some progress with him.
Not much else to report this week. We´re starting to gear up
for transfers next week (the dread is setting in) so things should be getting
pretty busy and I should get some serious driving time in. Wish us luck!
I´m not sure about the driver´s license or even how to update
it. I´ll ask around. Oh and no going to Glacier National Park without me.
That´s like one of my dream trips!
Well, I´d better go. I love you all more than I can say. I
hope everyone is well. Thank for your love and for keeping me updated. See ya!
Elder Cousins
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