Angel's Baptism

Angel’s Baptism

27 October 2014

Dear Darling Family,

First of all a disclaimer, the baptism yesterday isn't from my sector. But Angel was baptized and I am so happy! He lives in the other sisters’ sector. He was actually the investigator that visited for his first time the day of the fist fight in sacrament meeting. He lived through that with us and decided to be baptized despite his first experience in one of our meetings. D&C 3 comes to mind. I feel like he's partially my investigator because we've been teaching him this week while the other sisters in our ward are resting. He already had a baptismal date but I got to be there when he finally made up his mind to go forward and make this covenant. I'm afraid I'm becoming a crying missionary because it was kind of like the lesson with the young mother where I shared my testimony and started crying again. I'm not used to that. I didn't used to cry. 

We had lunch with the Reyes family twice this week, a senior couple who live in the other sector. I'm proud of their willingness to share the gospel and hope we can help them do it in a manner that people will receive. Hermano Reyes always gives Liahonas to his friends, which I think is a great idea. This week they invited a friend to have lunch with us as well. The friend is a psychologist in the mines. She helps people when there are traumatic accidents in the mines and had to leave lunch a little early because she got a call to do just that. She lives in Los Andes so I passed the reference to Hermana Castillo. The second time we ate with them they gave us each a cherimoya to take home because I had mentioned that I like them and Hermana Nunez had never tried one. That's something I'm going to miss after my mission. They have a strange texture and flavor but I think they are so good.

We taught the young mother and her family again and I am learning how to teach even with distracting kids. We taught the Restoration again because even though the mother understands it, her husband is new. Halfway through the lesson, their six year old little girl wanted to demonstrate her tin can telephone for me and her mom started to get impatient and tell her to put it way. I had a moment of inspiration and said, "That's exactly how prophets receive revelation." We turned it into an object lesson to demonstrate how God communicates with the prophets and the prophets speak to us. Even though we are not currently in the presence of God we can listen to his words when we listen to the prophets. The parents laughed and I felt a lot better about the lesson. The gospel is for families and I'm trying to learn to teach at a child's level with new investigators who have never heard these simple truths before.

The bad news is our bikes were stolen last week. The other bad news is that the other sisters in our ward have bad knees and aren't using their bikes....Wait a minute...The good news is we have new bikes.

We visited the Araya family this week because we passed them on our "new" bikes and they were working in their garden. They wouldn't accept help but they let us come in and talk to them. We gave them family history pamphlets (President Videla has really inspired me to do family history with everyone) and we set up a time to come back and help Hermana Araya recover her account.

We are also helping two of our investigators to start their family history. Jaylen will remember them. I wanted to give the family some homework to send me stories about Great Grandpa Davidson this week that I can print. I chose Grandpa Davidson because one of our investigators has a false leg and he thinks we are wasting our time teaching someone who can't do a lot of things. I'm going to start filling out my own family history pamphlet to use as an example and show people. Tell the extended family that they don't have to write me letters but I want a paragraph from everyone with a memory of Grandpa Davidson. I will print them and translate some into Spanish to put in my booklet here. I think some stories about Grandpa Davidson could help my investigator to realize that he can come to church, can be a member, and can find ways to serve and continue to progress and learn despite his legs.

Tonight after Pday I get to have a sleepover with Hermana Clark and Hermana Stanger!!!! We are doing my "tramites" tomorrow because at the moment Hermana Clark and I are living in Chile illegally. I'm super excited for chapter 3 of my companionship with Hermana Clark, chapter 4 if you count the plane. Guess what that means? Our trainees get to be companions in San Felipe. Guess what that means? Hermana Nuñez and Hermana Nuñez will be companions. That's super fun. They are excited to teach together, "I know that what Hermana Nuñez said is true." "I testify to what Hermana Nuñez said." "As Hermana Nuñez explained earlier..." Ja ja ja.

I love you all! I hope you are enjoying the fall weather for me. The heat here is going to kill me but I promised myself I wouldn't whine about it to you. Hermana Nunez and I are going hat shopping today.

Love,

Eva

 

My new companion Hermana Nuñez