Wednesday, October 8, 2014

B is for Baptism!!!! Take that, Satan!


 

Hola Familia,

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin.  This week has been incredible and so much has happened.

First off, yes! I saw dad singing in the choir this weekend.  They got some great shots of you dad! No, "close up zoom right up your nose shots" but there is always April! ;) The elders (well, the English speaking elders) of my zone were all looking for you.

Conference was AWESOME! Conference is like Christmas, the super bowl, your birthday, thanksgiving, and world peace all rolled into one.  Except better, because you get to sit in a crowded room of North American missionaries and listen to the prophet (look, I spelled it right this time). 

The cherry on top of a fantastic weekend? THE TWINS GOT BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!

It was such a miracle.  Unfortunately, L_____, their grandma, couldn’t get baptized because she drank coffee on Wednesday... Darn you, Satan.  But she will be getting baptized this Sunday. 

I cannot even begin to explain all of the miracles which lead up to this baptism.  M_______ (the mom) has been inactive for years because her (now ex) husband didn’t allow her to go to church.  She has just been waiting all this time for someone to invite her back, and we were able to find her. 

S_______ and Ma_______ are incredible.  They have been through a lot in their short 11 years of life, but it has all lead up to this point. The twins used to be triplets, but one of the sisters passed away.  Ma________ has always packed around guilt that her sisters passing was her fault because, of the three, Ma_______ was the biggest and her sister died because she was so small.  Ma_______ told me that she had been seeking peace all her life to know that her sister was okay, and that it wasn’t her fault.  She said that the moment she got baptized she could feel her sister there telling her "I am proud of you."

S_____ fought a hard fight with Satan this week.  I have never seen a little 11 year old girl be attacked harder than she was by the adversary.  She just felt afraid and worried about getting baptized.  She was scared without even knowing why she was scared.  Satan was just attacking her hard.  I saw a lot of myself in her with my pre-mission anxiety.  I told her that when we are about to do the right thing Satan attacks us.  I explained that I was scared before I went on my mission, just like how she was scared before getting baptized.

However, Sunday morning S_____ was having a complete meltdown.  She told her mom that she didn’t want to get baptized anymore because she was afraid.  Her mom was devastated and went into the other room, knelt and prayed that Heavenly Father would help her.

About this same time, Ma______ went to "give S______ a scolding for not wanting to get baptized" However, when she walked into the room, she felt like she needed to do something different...she started bearing her testimony.  After testifying to her sister about the truthfulness of the Gospel, she sat on the bed with her and they started looking up scriptures together about baptism.

They found, and read together Moroni 8.  Then prayed and asked God if S______ should get baptized that day.  The Spirit reaffirmed to her that she should be baptized, and they started walking to church hand in hand singing "the Spirit of God" so "they couldn’t feel Satan temping them anymore."

Wow.  The wisdom and love of these young girls astounds me.  They have been prepared by the Lord to find the truthfulness of the Gospel.  They are a miracle.

The baptism was amazing.  (At the request of the twins) I sang "Asombro me da" at their baptism... For the life of me I cannot remember what that hymn is in English [Editor’s note…looked it up.  It is “I Stand All Amazed”.]  But it was a really great experience.  The Markhams even came to their baptism. 

We are definitely seeing miracles here in V________.  We had 2 baptisms this weekend and have 5 lined up for next Sunday.

Pray for: L______, R_______, C_______, Cr_______, and R______ that they will be able to get baptized on Sunday.  Also pray that Co____, J________, and Ne_____ and N_______ will get baptized the following Sunday.

I am so blessed to be a part of this.

Funny story of the week:

One of the people who we are preparing to get baptized this next Sunday is a joven named Cr_______ who is 13 years old.  Yesterday, we asked Cr________ who he wants to baptize him.  Without missing a beat, he called out:

"HERMANA WISE!"

Well... That’s awkward.  The bishop will be baptizing him, and we will be explaining the priesthood again. 

That’s all for this week folks! I love you people.  Keep making good choices.  I am sorry that you broke your phone this week, Lincoln. 

Con amor!

Hermana Wise

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