Holy Smokes.... December? Since when? Craziness.
How was everyone’s
Thanksgiving? I hope SO good. Mine was excellent! We did service in the
morning, then I got to go help cook at a member's house and we ate at our
branch mission leader's home. They are awesome! Then, a family gave us some
papusas later. Needless to say, I had a lot of food.
We weren’t allowed to
proselyte on Thanksgiving, so we had a lot of plans with the members. Unfortunately, many of them called and canceled. :/ So what do you do as a missionary who
cannot go talk to people on Thanksgiving? Volleyball at the church! :) Turns
out a few other missionaries in our area had people cancel too, so we had a
little activity at the church. It will be interesting this month because we
cannot proselyte on Christmas or New Years Eve/Day.
This week was fabulous. Many reasons why it was so fabulous, but at the top of the list, JENNIFER GOT BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED :) Wahooooooooooooooooooo!
She was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday in
church. It was a great baptism. Weird because it was my first, so we weren’t
exactly sure how it would go. But the Spirit was very strong. It was awesome,
too, because it was all in Spanish! :) Man, I love Spanish, have I mentioned that
before? ;) Let me tell you a little about the baptism:
Jennifer had a lot of support from the branch. Quite a few people came,
which was great, especially the young women. (She is 15) Hermana Crotzer and I
had a lunch appointment in Elkridge that day, so we drove there to visit and eat
with a family. Then we had to rush back to Ellicott City to start filling the
font. Quite the new experience for me — never done that before. After a while
of playing and messing around with water temperatures, we got it down and the
font was filling up. It takes about 2-3 hours to fill, so we were there early.
We got everything set up, made some cutesy stuff (I love being a sister) for
Jennifer and waited for everyone to arrive.
Remember, we are in a Spanish
branch, so everything is on "Hispanic timing". Our branch
mission leader and the Riveras said they would meet us at the church 30 minutes
before the service to get ready and take pictures and such. Well 30 minutes before
and it was me, Hermana Crotzer, a bunch of empty chairs, a full font, and an
empty church parking lot. Talk about scary!
I was a little nervous, but everyone ensured us they were on their way. Sure enough, about 5 minutes before the service
was supposed to start, everyone showed up. They about gave me a heart
attack, but no worries, I survived.
The service was beautiful. I loved watching
her go under the water and come back out with a big smile on her face. But my
favorite part was "behind the scenes". We took her back into the
bathroom to change and she had the biggest grin on her face. She started squealing
so I gave her a great big hug. She started crying and would not let go. I stood
there, in the bathroom of the church, with a soaking wet teenager hugging me. I
pondered for a second how special this day was for her and how it will change
her life forever.
Finally, she looked up at me and said, "Hermana Newman, I
feel amazing. Why do I feel this way? Why am I so happy?" It took me
everything not to cry. So of course me being me, I laughed instead of crying
and replied with a big grin, "Why do you think, you silly girl?! You are
feeling the Spirit!" She smiled and just kept squealing, "I feel so
good, I love this feeling. I am baptized!" This simple moment between this
young girl and me made such an impact on me. I want to feel this way all the
time. I want to be squealing jumping for joy, saying how great I feel because I
am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!
The service was ended with a musical number on the violin, and Jennifer
giving her testimony. Her testimony was short and sweet but POWERFUL. Wow. I can’t
even describe the Spirit that was felt in the room. I am so glad that I have
this opportunity to be her missionary now and forever. What a great blessing
that is. Her journey has just begun. I am excited to work with her family more
and get them all active and members of the church. We need more strong families
in our branch, and they have great potential to be one! :)
We are working hard to find new investigators and work with the
members. It’s a little hard because we haven’t found a new investigator for
quite some time. But we are still looking! We visited with one of our other
investigators this week and she informed me that she has been off coffee for
more than 15 days. Woo! Gotta love La Palabra de Sabiduria!
I have said this
soooo many times before, but I LOVE watching people change their lives and
follow the example of Jesus Christ. We are still working through some stuff
back in Honduras, which can be tricky, but I know this sweet little lady will
be baptized no doubt! She always tells me how much she loves The Book of Mormon.
She knows it is true and loves to read it. The difficulty now is she is having
eye problems and eye pain, but can't go see a doctor :/ Let me tell you, working
with these people has made me seen all the things I have and take for granted.
I am SO blessed. I have had quite a lot of humbling experiences out here and
she is one of them. She has so many trials, but yet she doesn’t let it get her
down and she has enough faith to realize this message is the truth and she
wants it in her life. I will be thrilled the day I hear she is baptized! :) She
is so solid.
Well, this week has been great! Looking forward to another one! :) How is Utah, by the way? Cold? Any snow? I miss my snow!!!!!!!! It's cold here, but no snow. Lame. I love it here. Every second of it. Have a wonderful week and remember who you are, and whom you represent. Go find those people who need the gospel! There are so many out there who are waiting for all of us to do our work and spread the gospel! I love you with all my heart.
Con amor,
Hermana Newman :)
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