08/22/2011

Hola familia. This week was a really good week with the most stress I have ever had for a baptism. But the good news is that Eddy and Ninoska were baptized. We were trying to find find out how we could fill the baptismal font up with water because the tanks the church had weren't filled up high enough to bring water into the church. So we decided we were going to fill up the baptismal font with water. It wasn't the best idea because the baptismal font here is huge. It's as big or bigger than the one we have in the stake center. We got to the church at 8:30 in the morning and started carrying water in buckets. It's like 50 yards just to get to the baptismal font from the tanks of water. We had to lower a bucket into the water and pull it out with a rope. We did this for about 4 hours and realized it wasn't worth it becasue the water was really dirty. So we went back to the house called the branch president and district president like 10 times to try and figure out what we could do. We went back to the church with a hose and the water was shut off. So we returned to the house for the second time and decided to go to a different church with the hose. When we got to the church, we went inside and opened the doors to the baptismal font and there was already water filled all the way up. So we just had to go tell everyone including our investigators where the baptism would be. Ha ha it was crazy but everything worked out really well and a lot of people showed up. I'm so glad every thing worked out but we learned a lot and I'm still sore from carrying water. But we worked hard this week and things are going good with the family we are teaching. They couldn't go to church because it got cold and windy and they couldn't come back into town on the river when it's windy like that. They say things are good for next Sunday. The mother and her oldest son who is nineteen have baptismal dates and this week we will talk with the three younger kids to see if they are ready to have a baptism date too. It will be interesting for the father, but we will work hard and pray for him to be willing to accept our message and to follow the example of Jesus Christ. We also found this girl who is 9 years old and she hasn't been baptized. Her family are members so we will be privileged to help her be baptized. We are working hard with another guy who is a father and he works construction as one of the top guys in his crew. He has a hard time going to church, but this week I'm sure he will go. But the cool thing is during his lunch break he has 15 guys with him and he was sharing with them the message we shared with him the night before and he asked us questions for them the next time we taught him. It was pretty funny, but he tells them how we teach the gospel how it should be taught with a lot of love listening to the investigator and helping him solve the doubts he has. We truly hope things will go well with him because he says he is willing to be baptized and he wants to but he says he needs to know a little bit more and needs to see how the members are and how the church is. Something funny is that yesterday I ate turtle eggs haha and our pension bought them illegaly. She asked us "do you want to eat turtle eggs?" then she said "well they are not legal right now, but I bought them from a friend." haha. They are funny but truly amazing members. But something interesting is that yesterday we taught a daughter of an all member family and she was the only nonmember because she moved to Japan. But she speaks 3 languages perfectly, and she is a translater in Japan. She is pretty smart and has to be pretty rich too. But it was pretty cool to teach her, and she seems to be interested in our message and listens very well when we teach. We will have to send a Reference card to Japan for the missionaries there, but we're looking forward to teaching her again Tuesday. Well thanks a ton for all of your support and prayers. Transfers are this week and I will continue to work hard for my Redeemer Love, Elder Christoffersen