Making Progress

This has been hands down the best week in a while. Despite the fact that I´m in the crux of the Argentine winter. It rained for the better portion of 3 days. Saturday, Sunday and Monday nonstop. Monday it got so cold that it almost, ALMOST turned to snow. You could feel some of the flakes coming down through the raindrops, but it didn´t quite get cold enough. The Elders out in the coast were unfortunately caught in a blizzard. It´s colder down south.

Regardless of the temperature issues, this week was the baptism of Damian! It was a beautiful service. I can´t really pick favorite converts, but Damian is up there. The change we witnessed him as he progressed toward his baptism was unbelievable.

We arrived early to the Church on Saturday, but upon filling up the font, we realized the water was a bit dirty. So we tried emptying the font again to clean it out. Unfortunately, that wasn´t possible, as the pump system that ejects and filters the water required that the water reach a certain point to build enough pressure. In other words, we had to fill the pump up about halfway, which took about thirty minutes, and then we had to get all the water out. THEN we had to scrub the pool down, and then we proceeded to fill the font with luke-warm water. For some reason the water heater wasn´t heating it like it normally did.

Rewind the night before

we were with Damian and we asked who he would like to baptize him. To my surprise, he didn´t say me, or Elder Boyer. Instead he said "Bishop Castro," or the bishop of the ward. I like to think that we as missionaries can know when we did our job right, if the investigators can trust the members enough to ask them to do something like that. So Bishop Castro was going to perform the ordinance.

Fast-forward back to the slowly filling font.

We were about thirty minutes away from the start of the baptism and the water is barely touching the second step... out of five. The bishop pleasantly strolls into the church with his baptismal clothes and a smile on his face that resembles J-leno. Upon seeing the font his grin turns to a mix between melted Jack-o-lantern and Lavelle Edward´s sideline stone face. Knowing that the only way to get the font filled would be to start jet-firing frigid water into the pool. Should Elder Boyer or I have been the one to baptize, the bishop wouldn´t have cared if we baptized him in a glacier or a font filled with frigid slushees. But seeing as how he was performing the baptism he took special interest in the situation.

In the end everything turned out ok. The water, although a bit on the cold side wasn´t unbearable. And the important thing was and is that at the days finish, it worked out. Damian was baptized.

I am running perilously short on time and have way too much to say. Allow me to give you some other highlights.

-Damian insisted on bearing his testimony Sunday. We were a little nervous that he might say something weird. In the end it was probably the most powerful testimony of a convert I´ve ever heard. He talked about how when we found him we gave his car a push because it wasn´t starting. He compared that to the spiritual push that we gave him in life. He bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and compared it to the iron rod. How before he might have been on the path, but he was lost, crawling toward the tree of life. Now he felt that he was holding to the rod, and that he was moving, quickly, back to be with God. I can´t tell you the joy that comes from seeing people change their lives and walk in righteousness.

-Those finding experiences that I shared in my last email yielded fruits. When we went to the house of the people that had the broken down car, they let us in with open arms and listened to the message. It was one of the better finding appointments of the mission.

-The people we did a street contact with also were waiting for us when we went back on Saturday. Definitely some of the elect. Many outstanding questions about the BOM.

Ok, I´m out of time.

I love you all and will keep you in my prayers. I know this church is true without a doubt in my mind. The blessings that come into people’s lives when they live the Gospel are real. If we keep the commandments and do the little things, we are blessed and prosper in the land. If we don´t, we´re not happy. That´s really our choice here. Be happy, or be miserable. Missionary work is all about helping others receive blessings, and find true happiness. That´s what I do every day, and there is nothing more rewarding.