Elder Tyler Plowman - Mexico Merida LDS Mission: TWENTY ONE YEARS OLD AND A BAPTISM

Baptism of Naomi

Hello there everyone! What an incredible week this was. On Monday night the zone leaders showed up here in Calkiní to see how we were doing and to be here for my district meeting on Tuesday. A crazy thing happened on Monday night. We were eating dinner and i just felt the need to enter the room where we sleep, and the extension chord that our air conditioning unit is connected to was on fire. The whole room was full of smoke and it was a miracle that I entered the room, it was a testimony to me of always following the spirit :) On Tuesday we did divisions with the elders from Maxcanú and all four of us were here in Calkiní. It was the first time my companion (mi hijo) was going to be alone for a day. Honestly, I was SUPER nervous for him and we had a super long planning session and I was explaining to him what he could do to have success and the whole day I was praying for him to have success. I was super happy for him because when we got home after a long day of working hard, he had found 5 new investigators and he was super happy about how much he taught and accomplished. I was so proud of my trainee because i saw that he really put into practice what i had taught him!

District

Finally 21

This week was full of working hard and also full of birthday celebrations :) Yesterday I turned 21 years old which is SO crazy to me. When I got here I was 19 and now I am already 21! But starting on Wednesday night we had cake and dinner every single night haha. But honestly the best thing about everything was being able to spend time with so many people here in Calkiní that I love so much. I was so happy because we were working hard! Also on Saturday I had the opportunity to baptize a little girl named Naomi.

Naomi

Familia Ku

She just turned 8 years old and when I met her she was 6 and I have been able to see her family grow in their testimony and see them become more active and whenever they told me that I was going to baptize and confirm her, it made me super happy mainly because of the love I feel for the Ku Family! At the baptism, José (my convert that got baptize two months ago) showed up and afterwards he left with a member to go do home teaching visits! It was so awesome to see that! It made me so happy!!

Mangos

Mi Piñata

So yesterday was one of the most special days in my mission and probably the most special birthday of my whole entire life. In the morning we were praying so hard because Sauli, our little investigator that is 9 years old, said her mom was going to take her to church. Her mom is super less active and we were praying that her mom could truly support her so she can be baptized in two weeks. When we got to church, she was outside the door waiting for us with her mom! It made us so happy! And she gave me a happy birthday note saying something like this "i feel really embarassed to have to sing to you, so I will write you a song on paper..." it was so cute. Then being at church i loved being able to see all the people I love. The primary kids sang happy birthday to me, which is the picture I attached. I love the little kids and it was so special to me. A lot of them wrote me notes and they are so cute. Then the whole rest of the day we visited a ton of families. We ate 2 lunches and 3 dinners and 3 cakes hahaha. Also something that was really special was that President Ruíz passed by Calkiní to wish me a happy birthday and yesterday was also transfer day and he goes "Elders I hope this doesnt bug you too much but you guys are going to stay here in Calkiní. Elder Plowman will finish the mission here in Calkiní." It made me SO happy seriously. I love this pueblo so much and the people so much and all I want is to finish here. At night we had the most special birthday celebration. They put me in the middle of all of them (a few families from the branch) and all started to tell me something special and a lot of us cried haha. Honestly, I have such a pure love for the people here in Calkini, it is something different than any other area because I have been here so long and felt so much love for them. I think having my birthday wasn't really that important, but the time I got to spend with all of the members and people I love was the most important thing. I love being able to be here and it is time to keep working here in Calkiní! Have a great week!