So I am here in my internet cafe in Honduras and there is someone sitting next to me looking over every five minutes! I should be used to this by now... but it still freaks me out! One day I will get used to it :)
Well this week we had the baptism for Julia and Berenice! It was beautiful (and crazy stressful!) I would send you pictures but my card got wiped thanks to the sketch computers in Honduras :( I managed to salvage one picture though of Julia's baptism! Sadly Berenice is not in this picture, but I will take another picture with Berenice and send it so you can all see how adorable she is. The picture is in the bathroom because right before the baptism Berenice was so scared! We gave them their clothes and told them to go change, and it was taking awhile so I went to go check to make sure everything was alright. I went in and Julia was telling me that Berenice did not want to get baptized. I went over to talk to her, because the day before we had had a beautiful lesson just with Berenice and she felt so ready and was so excited. I asked her if she had faith in Jesus Christ, and she said yes, and then I asked her if she believed that this is the only Church of Jesus Christ in the earth. She said yes, but she said she did not want to today because of all the people that were there watching. She was so scared of all the people! I basically gave her a rundown of the talk "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence" by Jeffrey R. Holland. I told her that my first week in the mission (in the CCM), I wanted to go home and that I did not want to go on my mission. However, every time we are about to do something great, something amazing, Satan always comes to try and scare us. However, she was not convinced. So I went and got my District Leader to try to help me. So we came up with a plan, that Berenice and I would stand behind the door of the baptismal font, and that right before her baptism, he would go and ask everyone to leave. So Berenice and I stood behind the door of the baptismal font and said a prayer and read about when Jesus Christ was baptized while everyone was giving talks and singing for the baptism. Then right before her baptism, my District Leader came and said "Okay, your turn." She looked at him stubbornly and said... "No! You promised that the people would not be there." So he went and got everyone to leave. Berenice got baptized, and it was beautiful.
It is official. There is no such thing as a baptism that is not stressful. My hair might be white when I come home. Thanks a lot Satan!
Julia is so awesome though. At the beginning of this week she was telling me she needed to get baptized because she needed to pay tithing so she could receive the blessings. Julia has four kids and is living with her mom right now in a little one room house. She cooks tamales and sells them on the street and washes clothes to support her family, and she cannot wait to pay tithing. One day I will have faith like that!
Also in other news my companion had cambios :( But I have another gringa! Crazy right? She is from Idaho and things are going great. The other hermanas in our ward moved into our apartment (two hermanasa from Dominican Republic) and we got two Elders. So that is exciting. My new companion and I have been doing more let's go talk to this random person. So yesterday we went and talked to this lady and I got to drink coconut water from a coconut! We went over and started talking to her and she was definately not interested in our message, but I asked her about the coconut that she was drinking out of and I said I had never drunken coconut water like that. She asked if I wanted some and I was like "SI!!!!!!!!!!" and everyone started laughing. We also were talking to this lady who was washing her blanket, and I had an honest question about how to wash my blanket in the small pila, because last time I tried was an epic fail! Anyways she invited us in and told us she was an evangelical, forever and always. But we sang a song and had a prayer with her and shared a scripture in the Bible. At the end she said that she liked us a lot and there was a really good Spirit with us. So we are going to go back and try to get her to come to church this Sunday :)
I love this work and everything about it. Yesterday we went and taught someone for the first time, and I told him how beautiful this work is and how it changes lives. He looked at me and said really.. and I said yes. And I know that with every fiber of my being. This gospel changes lives, and it is beautiful. The other day I was reading in Helaman 12, about how great God is, and the nothingness of man (I will add it to the bottom). But in reality, the Lord is everything and he has the power to do everything. We, as missionaries, and as people, really are nothing: God is everything. If only we can submit our will to God and do as he would have us do, then we will see the miracles. We need to put everything on the altar of sacrifice and give everything to God, and then we can truly change (that is, of course, a lot easier said then done :).
Well I love you all and I hope you are all planning on having a lovely Valentine's Day :)
XOXO
7 O how great is the anothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are bless than the dust of the earth.
8 For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God.
10 And by the apower of his voice they are broken up, and become smooth, yea, even like unto a valley.
14 Yea, if he say unto the aearth—Thou shalt bgo back, that itclengthen out the day for many hours—it is done;
15 And thus, according to his word the aearth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the bsun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun.
17 Behold, if he say unto this mountain—Be thou raised up, andacome over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up—behold it is done.
18 And behold, if a man ahide up a treasure in the earth, and the Lord shall say—Let it be baccursed, because of the iniquity of him who hath hid it up—behold, it shall be accursed.
19 And if the Lord shall say—Be thou accursed, that no man shall find thee from this time henceforth and forever—behold, no man getteth it henceforth and forever.
20 And behold, if the Lord shall say unto a man—Because of thine iniquities, thou shalt be accursed aforever—it shall be done.
21 And if the Lord shall say—Because of thine iniquities thou shalt be acut off from my presence—he will cause that it shall be so.
22 And wo unto him to whom he shall say this, for it shall be unto him that will do iniquity, and he cannot be asaved; therefore, for this cause, that men might be saved, hath repentance been declared.
23 Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved.
Julia!
I promise I will send a picture with Berenice later :)
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