Jenga and Board games

Baptismal dates!! 

So on Tuesday we visited a hermana named Cintia whose returning to church and has 3 kids who aren't baptized. Well, we've been visiting her a while and her kids have never wanted to participate, but this Tuesday when we visited not only were her kids there ready to participate, but also Cintia's sister who is also an inactive member, with her 3 kids who haven't been baptized! 

So we had a very hectic lesson playing The Plan of Salvation Board game (10/10 recommended) with 2 adults and 6 kids! We planned with Cintia to come back on Thursday and all the kids pleaded for us to come back! 

On Thursday we busted out Jenga to teach the Restoration of the church (12/10 I love Jenga) and it was a crowd pleaser. The kids were very engaged and asked a lot of questions!! In the end, 2 of Cintia's kids decided they wanted to be baptized!! So we are going to help them prepare to get baptized on the 28th! 

This Sunday they came to church for the first time and loved it! So we're looking for more games to teach right now, I'll take ideas! 

I'm sick, but in the winter who isn't? So that's a wrap on the big news for this week, next week will be a lot of traveling so we'll see if I survive! 

Spiritual Thought 

In the Come Follow Me for this week 2 verses really stuck out to me in Chapter 58 of Doctrine and Convenants that say, 

"3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. 4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand." 

And it's got a cool companion verse in 1 Corinthians 2 that says, 

"9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

In this life we can't see the truly grand plans God has for us. He intends for us to be so much more than we are now. He loves us so much and he's got a lot of blessings in store. In the difficult moments we don't need to be so worried, because God will make sure it all works out. 

The Perfect Baptism

 ... almost

Mía got baptized this week! 🥳 On Friday she got baptized and it was great! Her mom came to her baptism which was super special considering her parents are catholic and not very supportive of Mía going to church. The mom even said she was interested in family search so we're helping her discover her family tree! 

But the baptism was perfect and everything was going well. They fixed the hot water in the church, but it left the spout extremely slowly so we had to go to the church 5 hours before the baptism to fill the font. But other than that it was all perfect. Until the confirmation of the Holy Ghost. In the prayer I heard the Brother giving the blessing say "Mía Dufourg." 

Now for those who don't know, the ordinances of baptism and confirmation have to be done with the full name of the person. Mía happens to have a middle name. So we spoke with our Missionary Leader and he goes, "ummmm they also didn't say the full name in the baptism". So while everyone goes to party and eat and socialize after the baptism, we go downstairs and tell Mía she has to get baptized and confirmed again. 

Luckily Mía is awesome and put on the freezing soaking wet dress again, her boyfriend Thiago baptized her again (this time with the full name, and a lot more splashing around in the water to try and soak the other) and his dad confirmed her again (this time with the full name) and by the time we got to the party they ate basically all the food. 

But, she got baptized and was so so happy about it! Many tears were shed that day! 

Other thingzzzz

Hermana Villagrán was so sick this week 😭 my poor daughter. Yesterday we didn't leave the house except to go to church and it doesn't look like we'll be leaving today either. 

We were traveling home from Chaves this week in the car of a member named Sasha and her car broke down in the middle of the route and we got stuck on the side of the road for 40 minutes in winter in a car without heating 🥶

Our baptismal fecha Leandro brought a friend to church all on his own!! She loved it and said she was gonna come back! 

Ordered empanadas and it was the best empanada place I've ever tried here, but the guy who owns the place was a little more interested in getting to know the missionaries than the religion so now I can't eat empanadas 😔

Spiritual Thought 

I want to share a scripture in Matthew 28:19-20, 

"19 ¶ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 

To be a disciple of Christ means to go forth with the purpose of helping others be baptized. Baptism is not just something we do because we like numbers and we want the church to seem really cool, it's the door to eternal life. 

Baptism is literally the essential ordinance. Every single person in the world has the need to be baptized by priesthood authority to be with their family forever. 

Something I've been thinking about recently is that I'm not here to baptize people, I'm here to make eternal families. The only way to be an eternal family is through baptism and that means that my goal should not just be teach people or find people or whatever random thing, it should be help people have eternal families by helping them share the gospel with their families and friends. 

Doing that will make a lot of happy families for eternity ☺️

Baptizing without Water

Exciting News

Eduardo and Mía got baptized!!!!! 

I don't know how many remember Mía the younger from previous episodes. The Mía who was 11 years old who we were teaching who couldn't go to church and ergo couldn't be baptized. Well on Friday she got baptized! The other hermanas were working with her and helping her go to church and so she got baptized on Friday and brought all her friends to her baptism it was so cute!! 

And of course, Eduardo got baptized this Friday and it was the most beautiful and stressful experience! Eduardo was very pleased to tell us that even though his wife and other daughters said no to going to his baptism, his youngest daughter and grandson said yes and accompanied him on that special day! 

So everything was great until an hour before the baptism and there's 0 water in the whole church. I will say if anything is a Testament to this being the true church, it is the things that happen before a baptism. 

So there's 0 water in the whole church and the first counselor comes and he can't fix the problem and he has no idea what's going on until he climbs up into the attic of the church (which is so well hidden I didn't even know they had one.) 

And he sees that someone turned the key to shut off the water tanks, ergo there wasn't any water in the church. Guys, Satan literally works so hard because how on earth could someone use a key to turn off the water in the attic of the church when the only peopls who have keys are the president and his counselors??

So 40 minutes before the baptism the font finally starts filling (with freezing cold water, and it's the middle of winter here just so you know) and so for the time of the baptism the font is less than halfway filled! We're like, okay, maybe we can wait for the font to fill a little more? No. The water in the church cuts off again and everyone is waiting so finally they say, we're just gonna do the baptism ans hope for the best. 

So basically Mía the Younger gets baptized just fine because she's an 11 year old whose not very big. But with Eduardo they try 3 times and they just cannot submerge him in the water! And it is just so cruel to dunk a 70 year old man in freezing cold water so finally we close the font so no one can see and he gets baptized lying down in the water. 

Well even though Satan was working hard that day Eduardo came to church that Sunday the happiest I'd ever seen him. He told us it was the day he'd dreamed of and he's so excited to keep learning more about this church because he just knows it's God's true church!

What a happy day!!

Anyways that was the most exciting part of my week so I'll leave it at that for now and go right to my spiritual thought. 

Pensamiento Espíritual 

With Eduardo finally being baptized it's made me reflect on the fact that Eduardo is a 70+ year old man, and yet he is so humble and teachable. He is such a perfect example to me of how the Savior wants us to be. In Doctrine and Covenants 50:40-42 it says, 

"40 Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. 

41 Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me; 

42 And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost." 

In this life we are all little children. No matter how old we are, we are God's little children and the little brothers and daughter's of our brother Jesus. 

We need to be like little children, always learning, humble, and trusting in our father and his wisdom. If we do these things, then not one of us shall be lost. 

Anyways, I'm just so happy Eduardo got baptized and it's such a testament to me that God prepares people if our only desire is to trust in him and his plan. 

Some seriously talented artists on my mission

Celebrating with our Mission President

Getting my new trainee

Baptizing Nationzz 😎

Buen dia gente! This week was a good one. 

Baptisms!

First and most importantly our friend Eduardo is getting baptized next week so I'm going to need a lot of prayers that everything goes well!! He is so ready and so excited! 

When we were doing the baptismal interview questions with him his testimony was so powerful! It's crazy how fast he changed from telling us that the Bible says the Book of Mormon can't be true, to testifying thay Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and he restored the true church! 

This week when we talked about baptism with him he was so scared and hesitant because he said his family wouldn't support him, and he didn't want to hurt his wife and kids by doing this without them, but then as we talked more about it he said that God was calling him and he couldn't say no. 

So on Friday he will be getting baptized!! 

Also our friend Mía said she's ready to be baptized on May 30th! She's going to ask her parents permission and we're going to fast all together because she really wants her parents support in this! But she said she's so sure that May 30th is the day because as she prayed about what day to choose she received the answer May 30th!! 

Pray for Mia!

So prayers for her too because she is so determined to be baptized!! 

One of our friends Leandro also accepted a baptismal date! He's still very hesitant because he doesn't know very much about God or churches, but he wants to follow the example of Jesus and be baptized so we're helping him prepare to be baptized in June! 

Conference

We had our zone conference this week! It was fun to see everyone and receive so much inspiration from our Mission President! Also we received the flu shot so this conference was a bit of a downer, but we survived. 

Pensamiento Espíritual! 

I'd like to share a little scripture I was reading this week in 2 Nephi 33, which says, 

"7 I have charity for my people, and great faith in Christ that I shall meet many souls spotless at his judgment-seat" 

I love this scripture because at times there are moments where one feels that it's not worth it everything that we do. That some days no one answers the door or no one ever progresses. But I love this scripture because for me it shows Nephi's experience with this. 

In a lot of his writings Nephi laments the wickedness of his people, but here he says he has charity for them, and he knows many of them will be saved thanks to the things he has taught and written. In our lives there are so many people who come to know Christ through our words and actions. 

If we are doing our best to be charitable, loving, and a little more like Christ every day, our efforts will always make the difference!

Councilors

I'm sleeping next to mold - But at least there are LEDs...