I just want to keep going up

Hola Familia!

This week has been great.  We have been blessed with SO MANY miracles.  It's crazy to think that the start of this month we were opening this area without knowing a single member or investigator and we ended this month with three miracle baptisms.

... That's right, we baptized this weekend.

One of our miracles is named R_______.  He is a 16 year old kid who started going to church with some of his friends at the start of this month.  We had a really hard time tracking him down but we finally were able to find him and he accepted, not only baptism, but also a baptismal date on his first visit.  However, as he kept listening to us he suddenly got offered a job wherein he would have to work on Sundays.  He took the job because his dad abandoned the family leaving him and his older brother to care for his mom and younger siblings.  We were panicking but we went to teach him about the importance of baptism, sacrifice, and how God is capable of working miracles.  He explained to us that he really wanted to be baptized but that his boss already told him that working on Sunday was non-negotiable leaving him unable to ever attend church.

We asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he told us:

"I want to be clean."

We then asked what he would give to become clean and after thinking for a minute he told us:

"Anything.... I will talk to my boss again.  I will come to church on Sunday and be baptized even if it means losing my job."

Wow, what incredible faith this young man has.  The greatest part was that his boss just decided to give him Sundays off he came to church on Sunday and was baptized that night.

The next miracle that we had was L_____, the sister of S_____ (S_____ has been going through a bit of a rough patch, but we are still working with him).  She almost didn't get baptized because she was so terrified for her interview (don't blame her... Elder R_____ can be scary).  But she eventually did it and  despite her crippling fear of water was baptized after church on Sunday.  When she left the water she cried out:

"QUE RICO!!!"

which directly translates to "how delicious!"

Best reaction to being baptized, EVER!

Our last miracle was O______, he was able to finally kick Satan right in the pants and be baptized Saturday night.  He couldn't have been more excited to be baptized.  After the service, he asked if he could share his testimony. Obviously, we let him do it.

 

With tears in his eyes he humbly said:

"Some of you may have known be before my baptism... I wasn't a great person.  But I have been making lots of changes in my life and I am grateful for this chance that God has given me to change and be baptized.  I know that this church is true and.... I just want to keep progressing.... I just want to keep going up."

Wow, how profound.  As I am about to compete 9 months in the field I feel like this should just become my motto...

 "I just want to keep going up."

I have learned so much during my time here in Guatemala, but I still have so much to learn.  My goal is to just keep improving.  Become a better teacher, speak the language better, know the scriptures more, pray harder, walk faster, contact more people, love the people more, and become a better representative of Jesus Christ.

I just want to keep going up.

That is about it for this week.  The other semi-interesting occurrence was that we bought mosquito nets this week to help fend off the dengue carrying mosquitoes.... But we didn't have a ladder to put them up.  So, we had to get a bit creative (pictures included..... Sorry I am so sweaty, welcome to Santa L_____).

Love you all! Hope Thanksgiving was awesome! For Thanksgiving lunch (we don't eat dinner in this mission.... it's a rule) I ate a tortilla with beans on it....

"QUE RICO!"

I love you people! Make good choices.  Share "He is the gift" on Facebook because NO ONE here has computers.

Love yall

Until next week,

Hermana Wise

AKA...

- Hermana We-Say (dinosaur fighter, professional lice remover, Lamanite warrior, and Dengue survivor..... Not even joking).

... and this computer isn't working.... Pictures next week.