preparing

Maybe I talked things up a little too much last week...all of you are expecting grand news of weddings and baptisms and all kinds of things. We did indeed have a lot of miracles, but a few things fell through too. Well, I wouldn`t say fell through...more like postponed for a bit. 

The wedding didn`t happen because we found out it will be a bit more complicated that we thought originally. In Ecuador if you have a child with another partner you have to go through a legal process to basically adopt the child into the marriage. (I don`t know how to explain it in English. Sorry) So they have to do all this stuff to get married. We`re looking at the options, but hopefully it happens in October.

Baptism news! Manuel, David, and Richard all got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was an absolute miracle that everything worked out the way it did. Joel decided not to get baptized yet...he just needs a little longer to figure things out. 

Anyway, here`s the scoop on the baptism miracle news.

We had permission from David`s parents for him to get baptized. They signed it a long time ago to authorize us to teach him (legal stuff). But Wednesday rolled around and his parents still didn`t know he was getting baptized on Saturday. He had is interview, passed, was super stoked about his baptism, but notified us that we had to be the ones to break the news to his parents. 

So all week long we searched for the oportune moment to talk to his parents. They are both incredibly busy with work and things, so things weren`t working out. 

On Friday we stopped by and chatted with the mom for a minute. All she had time to say was tell us that her son absolutely could not be baptized this weekend. But we had zero time to explain because she had to run to work. Awesome. So then Friday night we had a pre-baptism family home evening activity to make sure everything was on track for Saturday. David was super stressed about the whole issue of his parents not knowing (he talked to his mom about it and she said he would have to wait a YEAR to get baptized!), suddenly Richard wasn`t sure if he wanted to get baptized, and Joel was unsure as well. 

So we were going to go that night to talk to the parents, but things didn`t work out and we didn`t go. Saturday came. Aka day of the baptism. We went early in the morning to talk to his parents and ask them to support David in his decision to be baptized. No luck. The mom was on her way out the door and so we said we`d come back in the afternoon. 

2pm rolled around and we made our way to David`s house for a last attempt. The mom came out. She said no...again...but she let us in and we sat down to talk. I was super nervous for some reason because I had no idea what I was going to say. I had cotton mouth and sweaty hands and prayed and prayed and prayed that God would give me the words that would soften her heart. 

We talked of families, sacrifice, following the Savior, and preparation. Before sitting down and talking with the mom I had a really negative concept of her because I thought she didn`t care about her kids. She is so busy with a crazy work sechedule that I thought she simply didn`t care. But I had a bit of a humbling moment as she talked about her deep concern and love for them and I came to understand all the sacrifices she gives for them. 

Her biggest concern was the preparation her son has had in order to be baptized. She didn`t think that in 3 weeks he knew enough to take the step of being baptized. We felt impressed to explain that his preparation hasn`t been in these 3 weeks...it has been since the time he came to earth. He was born into an amazing family (but not without trials and imperfections) in order to learn the things that would bring him to this day. The day of his baptism. The day that he would take his 17 years of preparation and show God that He is ready to leave behind old things and old sins and go forward following the Savior. 

We asked David why he wanted to be baptized. He looked down at his shoes and figeted around in his chair. Finally he opened his mouth and said "well...I`ve been listening and..." silence. But not empty silence. It was a silence full of emotion and truth and the spirit. He turned away so we wouldn`t see the tears in his eyes. We sat there in this rich silence for a solid 2 minutes. I looked over at his mom and tears were streaming down her face. Every single one of us knew without a doubt that David had a testimony of the church. He knows it`s true. And he didn`t need words to express it. 

After a good long chat his mom give him permission. And that night she even came to the baptism. 

My companion and I felt a little bit like Nephi and his brothers going to Laban to get the plates. We tried and tried and tried and tried a thousand times to get the mom`s permission, but were denied a thousand times. But for some reason we kept persisting. We kept going back and we changed our approach every time. And at the end we just had to be led by the spirit to know what to say and do. It was an incredible experience to hand the whole thing over to the Lord and realize that we are only instruments in His hands. 

The Suprise of the week: we showed up to sacrament meeting and all of a sudden my old companion, Hna Morán popped out of nowhere! Remember her? We were companions for like 3 weeks about 6 months ago. She is here visiting the mission from Colombia and somehow found me and came to visit! It was so crazy to see her. We didn`t get a chance to chat very much because we were in Sacrament meeting, but it was fun to see her again. Also a little weird because she didn`t have a plaque and wasn`t wearing typical missionary clothes. 

Best thing I learned this week from the scriptures...3 Nephi 11:7-11. It`s when the Savior visited the Nephites in America after His atonement and resurrection. First God presents His Son. "My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Such simple words, but such a rich meaning. The all-powerful God of the universe expresses His love for His Son. I don`t know of any kid who doesn`t want to please His parents, and Christ achieved it perfectly. I wonder how God would introduce me. I hope I am pleasing Him. 

Next Christ appears and introduces Himself. "I am the light and life of the world." He knew exactly who He was. The Son of God. The Savior and Redeemer of the world. Light. Life. The beginning and the end. I think sometimes this is an atribute of Christ that we overlook - His perfect understanding of His identity and His purpose. 

And if it is an attribute of Christ, we should strive to get it too. I think sometimes we forget who exactly we are. Children of God. Literally. Future Kings and Queens and inheritors of the kingdom of God. Sometimes we get so stuck on our imperfections and weaknesses that we forget who we are. Perhaps we should take a little time to figure out a little bit about our divine nature, our rights (and responsibilities) as children of the King of Kings. 

Funniest thing of the week: I touched a soccer ball for the first time in months. We were waiting around for David and Joel to teach them and found a soccer ball. I attempted to juggle a bit and quickly realized that it`s NOT like riding a bike. Please imagine for a minute a giant white girl in a long skirt pretending to remember how to juggle a soccer ball on a dirt road in Ecuador. 

I guess I felt like I had to make up for my lack of words this week...hope you`re not all dying of boredom by now. 

Love you all more than crunchy leaves and sweater weather.

Stay groovy and have the best week of your lives.