MAYTE GOT BAPTIZED - MARCH 20, 2017

Marisol and familia

Hello there everyone!!! How are you guys doing? I hope you had a great week. This week was probably the best week of my mission. I have never seen so many miracles in one week. This week was filled with appointments and literally the whole week we were busy teaching, we were so busy teaching we almost had no time to look for new investigators! Well, we are always looking but you get the point. On Tuesday I gave my first district meeting as a district leader, which went really well. It is different as a district leader because I give a meeting every week and I have more freedom about what I want to talk about, whereas as a Zone Leader we gave one huge meeting each month that President would always train us on how to give. So it was great and we talked about how to have the Spirit in our life to be able to teach with the Spirit and the our objective as missionaries, it was super great honestly. 

Anyways so on Tuesday afternoon we went to visit Marisol in the pueblo Dzitbalché. She is Andres´ older sister. She had gone to the church and the first week here in Calkini we taught her, but she had to leave for a couple weeks so we focused on Andres more. So she went to Andres´ baptism, and went to church the next day for his confirmation. The problem with her is that she is living with a less active, and they aren't married yet. So on Tuesday she asked us a straight up question. “Elders, what do I have to do to be baptized? Can I be baptized living like this?” We explained to her that she needs to be married and then we taught her The Plan of Salvation. Afterwards, she starts crying and says “I prayed so hard for so many days about this, and I KNOW that I need to be baptized. I want it so bad. Seeing my brother get baptized I started to think, what a minute, I received my answer too, what am I doing? I need to be baptized too.” So she said she is 100% willing to do anything necessary to be married and baptized before I leave Calkini. I told her that the first week of April there are transfers and I could be leaving Calkini, even though it isn't very likely. We challenged her to be baptized March 25th and be married and she accepted!! I have never seen such a huge miracle! She had always been saying she didn't want to be married for a year or so more, but the Spirit changes people when they let it!! I then remembered that she has kids there living with her, and I asked her how old they are and she said one is living with her named Arturo, who is 9 years old, and actually has gone to church every week with Andres and wants to be baptized too. So we started talking to him, and challenged him to be baptized with his mom on the 25th, and he was so happy! Honestly it was the biggest miracle and change of heart I have seen in my mission. I had never felt so much happiness in a lesson before.

So since last year when I left Calkini I have actually dreamt a lot of times about different people here, different investigators etc. They are always dreams where I go back to teach them again and they were always waiting for me. On Tuesday night i dreamt of an old investigator named Mitsu, and I decided that it was time to go look for her again. So we got there on Tuesday night and she was so happy to see us again and started telling us about how hard her life had been the last year. It is so sad to me sometimes to see how so many people suffer in life and don't know that there is more hope to all this. 

So on Thursday we taught Marisol The Gospel of Jesus Christ, about faith etc. Then on Friday we went and she goes “After you taught me about faith, i decided to have actions with my faith. Today I spent the whole day looking at what I have to do to be married next week, and I bought the marriage act already!” It was such a huge miracle. I honestly cant even believe it!!!

So on Saturday, Mayté was baptized :) There was a huge miracle here. When she entered the water, she had a panic attack. She has a huge fear of the water, and she started balling for about 20 minutes in the water, and her dad was trying to calm her down. I was praying with all my heart might mind and strength that she could overcome her fear. And when it was all said and done, she was baptized :) It was so amazing to see her get baptized, especially to see her dad baptize her, because it was the whole family that we were teaching and reactivating, not just Mayté. Honestly being able to be an instrument in the Lords hands to help someone come unto Him is the most amazing blessing in the whole world. I could ask for anything else. :)

Well Johann was going to be baptized this week but wasn't because apparently he has a problem with his lungs and the doctor said he cant be in water for a couple more weeks. Johann had the faith to be baptized anyways, but his mom lacks faith. We are trying to reactivate his mom more, so that Johann can have more support.

Yesterday we had 5 investigators at church. Denisse, who is a less active members wife. Jose, who is the cousin of a member, he is 14 and we have been teaching him recently. Then Marisol and Arturo. And also William came. We were super pumped honestly haha. Being in a pueblo is great again because we gave the Sunday school class and also the priesthood class. It is always good to be asked to do it at the last second! We are super pumped. This Saturday William, Marisol, and Arturo should be baptized. The plan is that Marisol will get married on Friday :) We will get to be witnesses.

Yesterday afternoon we had a super great district training with President Ruiz and all the leaders of the Calkini District. We learned a ton!! I have been learning a ton training Elder Quintero. I have learned so much about humility and loving him to help him become the best missionary he can become. It reminds me of when I started the mission. He really struggles to teach fluidly and in a way that people can understand, so I have been doing practices with him everyday to help him learn how to teach better. Also, I have never prayed so much for a companion to teach by the Spirit. When he is teaching, I am always praying for him. I have learned so much and it really makes me remember how I felt when I started the mission and I have seen how far I have come. The mission is amazing and I know that the only way a person can return with God is by accepting His restored Gospel!!