Clowns at a wedding?

Hola familia!

 First off, sorry that I am suddenly writing you guys on a Monday. I know that we almost always write Tuesdays, but this week they switched P Day because tomorrow they are installing smoke detectors in our apartments (what are we, stateside missionaries?). Anyway, so that is why I am writing today. Should be back to normal schedule next week.

S__________ this week has been nuts! Crazy in the very best way... We had FIVE baptisms and a DOUBLE WEDDING this week. I can't even begin to explain the levels of stress. But, by some miracle it all pulled through. Everyone is happy and we got to help five people come unto Christ through baptism and we have (at least) one more who will be getting baptized before the end of the month.

The wedding:

First off, the back story: there are 18 people that live in the house that the twins live in. Remarkably, almost all of them are incredibly positive and want to hear about the Gospel. R_______ and C______ are two of the twins aunts who also live in this house with their "husbands" (everyone says that the people that they live with are their husbands in Guatemala but no one is actually married). Both R______ and C_____ have been coming to church and want to get baptized, but in order to do so they needed to get married.

So what do you do? Call the missionaries! They can plan a wedding, right?

It was a MIRACLE that the husbands wanted to marry their wives. Sadly, it usually doesn't work out like that in this country. But, this time it did! We managed to throw together a double wedding in five days.... And when I say throw together I really mean it. It was crazy, but it worked out alright in the end. Best part was, R________ got baptized yesterday and her husband is now starting to take the discussions as well! He came to church yesterday to see the baptism and we are hoping that he gets baptized this month too!

C_______ is adorable. Her husband is really positive too but unfortunately, works on Sunday. We are hoping and praying that we can we a miracle and he will be able to find a new job. C_____ is all set up to be baptized this Sunday, she couldn't be happier.

Here was the interesting part about the wedding... Friday night we called the elders to verify that their ward didn't have an activity in the church Saturday because we were going to have the wedding. Our district leader PROMISED ME that there was nothing going on so we moved forward with our plans to marry our investigators at 5 the following day.

At 4:30 we showed up at the church ready to go and....

CLOWNS. The church was crawling with CLOWNS!

Gee, thanks Elder A______ for letting us know that your ward had some kind of twisted clown activity going on!

So there we were, with our wedding party waiting for the lawyer while meanwhile the other ward is throwing some kind of sick clown party.

It was awesome.

But, in the end the clowns (and other ward) finally left and at 7:30 (right on time by Guatemalan standards) the lawyer showed up and the wedding happened.

Thank goodness.

Sunday was awesome! We had five baptisms!

Ca_______: family friend of the twins

Rod_____: Brother of the twins

C______: Cousin of the twins who wanted me to baptize him (and son of Rosanna)

R_______: Aunt of the twins

L_______: Grandma of the twins

Honestly, it was such a miracle. These people have been so prepared to hear the Gospel. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I am blessed. The church is true.

I am more tired than I have ever been in my life. But, I am also the happiest.

Funny story of the week:

My first name is super weird here. SUPER WEIRD. It means "the mountain range" and all the Latinos think it is a hideously strange name. Well, my district leader gave me a blessing back when all the head surgery drama went down. As a result, he knows my name.

Last Tuesday, we all happened to be eating lunch in the same members house.

One of the Elders here is from Peru, Elder R_________, and he was explaining to us his least favorite type of Peruvians.... This is how it went down:

(remember that la sierra means mountain range and Elder R_________ has NO IDEA what my first name is)

Elder R________: "Aw man, I just HATE sierra people."

Elder A________ (while staring me down): "Really, how are people from the sierra?"

Elder R_________: "Ugly. Just ugly. They are a bunch of fat, grumpy white people."

Elder A_________ (still staring me down, and busting up laughing): "Are all the people from the sierra like that?"

Elder R__________ (has no idea what is going on) "Yup. Every last one."

It was pretty funny.

Keep reading your scriptures and making good choices!

Love you all!

Until next week!

Hermana Wise