Well, how's it going? :) Sorry but you'll have to wait another week for the two baptism pics, the usb won't recognize the cord, dangit, oh well, I still love you. ;) Oh, and a big happy birthday to Jason, the big number 12!!
Yup, we were able to baptize Beatriz on Saturday. Wow, she is honestly a miracle!! with such great faith and desire to choose the right and follow Jesus Christ. We met her on Sept 16th, she came to the Sunday meeting and we set up a cita with her for the 19th. We talked with her and put the fecha for the 29th, she was a little hesitant at first but then in our 2nd meeting, Satureday the 22nd, she was all ready for it, she was loving reading the Book of Mormon and she just felt the spirit so strongly. So we had a cita set for Tuesday and we were going to slowy and easily teach her the rest of the commandments. But we were doing a service project that took a lot longer than we thought it would and so we had to set the cita for Wednesday after interviews, but that went longer then we thought that it would again, so we had to postpone the cita to Thursday night. She would have to be interviewed on Friday, so we had to dump teach everything to her on Thursday night. So we get to the cita with the Flia Cubilla, we brought Beatriz and Yamila (her niece, member, brought her to church the first time) and we start going through the laws of God, we get to the word of wisdom, she had a problem with smoking, oh no, what were we going to do. We got talking about it and wow, what a miracle she is. When she first came to the church just over a week and a half ago, she was smoking and wanting to quit, but when she came to the church she felt bad for smoking for some reason and wanted to quit even more. So she started smoking less and less and she had smoked 3 cigarettes that Thursday, the day of the Word of Wisdom lesson, but she promised us on the spot that she would never smoke again, and so I felt good enough to continue with the lesson and then we did the practice interview and she passed. So then we were needing a miracle from God to help Beatriz, a life long smoker, quit in one night. So we were praying really hard and then we got to the interview with Elder Solum and she had completely stopped!! It was a miracle!! She had overcome the temptations and we were so proud of her.
So Saturday, the day of the baptism. So we get the pila filling up and everything is going good. She shows up and the people start showing up, everyone except the bishopric rep. haha just like Gastons baptism. Hermano Huerta was 40 min late, we took the pics and we were waiting. But then he finally showed up and the room was full of people and then came the time to perform the baptism, an hermano of the ward did the baptism, our ward mission leader, and he was in the water and me and Elder Barragan were the witnesses. Then it happened, she froze at the top of the stairs, turns out that she was really scared of water, that's a first, but with her faith that she has she slowly made it down the stairs until she was in the water. The hermano said the prayer and she was baptized! haha The Lord really helped us out on this one, only the restored gospel will lead people to change their lives in a day and overcome their fear of water for a minute to receive all of the blessings that the gospel brings for us!! Then she was confirmed yesterday and within two weeks was a member of the church. We received permission to baptize her with 2 attendances (to sacrament mtg) because of General Conference next week. Oh, and para que sepan, Judith was also confirmed, so this was a pretty awesome week, with a baptism and two confirmations.
So I received two smaller packages with the big manilla bag that hermano Bartholomew delivered. Thank you thank you thank you so so so much for all of you that sent something. I also received the package from the McOmbers! Thanks for the snacks and pics, haha honestly I love any type of snack, thanks aunt Kim. Send my love to the cousins and good luck with school and BYU for Courtney, how exciting! I haven't opened the packages that say to wait for 10/4 but thanks mom for the new inserts and the flip flops those are awesome!! :) also the vitamins and the cake mix and candles, we are going to make cake for weekly planning this Thursday. :) haha I also received the letters and the letter from the Biggs, thanks, there still is one waiting in the offices so Elder Solum went to do visa paperwork today so hopefully he can pick it up on the way back.
I'm super excited for General Conference this next weekend, it just seems like the April one just got done, but yeah it will be transmitted to the stake center in Escobar and we will go to watch it there. We won't be able to watch the priesthood session because it starts at 9pm here and we don't have permission to stay out late, oh well, in a month I'll have the dvd to watch from the priesthood session.
It's crazy that I'm going to be 20 yrs old this Thursday!! I can't believe that 20 years is now passing and that I'm not a young man anymore, haha I can remember my 10th bday party, first our flag football game with my friends, then the party with cake outside on the patio and then Gen. Conf. and I made the wooden block statue, haha and now I'm going to be planning for the week to come and talking to people about the gospel of Jesus Christ on my 20th birthday, but I'll still have cake. :)
That's an awesome story about Brandon and him sharing the gospel and he will be a great missionary. That's awesome that he's going to Bolivia, that will be an awesome mission. I love hearing from the friends and how they are doing, it's awesome that we are all over the world, some of us speaking spanish and other crazy languages haha. What are Tanner's plans? Shouldn't the BYU entrance papers get started soon?
Anyways, to talk a little about my week, first of all it was a crazy week,
Tuesday, we moved a house for service :) haha Yes, I'm not lying. It was a small two room house made out of wood and we had to move it 4 meters and it took a long time. It was for an awesome family, the Llactahuamans, from Peru. First we helped take out the remaining things from their house and then we all took a corner and the middle, it was a ingenious way to do it with what little resources that we had. There were 3 beams through the middle of the house that we were able to lift up and so we started lifting it up onto two logs and then we put it on 2x4´s and then on top of that little pegs that would work like wheels and then we had the slow process of pushing it and trying to make sure that it didn't fall off of the track, it was a slow process, but finally as the sun was going down we finally moved it to the concrete that had been prepared as the new foundation. They had a foundation of wood and when it rained it would flood the house, so now they aren't going to have that problem. Then they fed us lunch in appreciation, it was all four of us helping.
Then Wednesday, we traveled to San Fernando for the interviews and it was another great interview. We talked about the success that we have been having in Savio and what we were doing to acheive all of that. Then we talked about how gma and gpa Hilbig were mission pres in Knoxville and how Elder Hilbig is in the 70 right now, he remembers that name from somewhere. Then we talked about how Elder Barragan is doing and how I could help his language even more. It's already really good and he has the confidence, he'll have it in no time. Then a crazy experience on the bus ride home, so we finally found a bus that would take us back to Savio, and it was already an hour and a half trip, so we get to Maschwitz right next to Savio and there was a huge traffic jam and so our driver decides to take a back road to try and go around the traffic. Then we got to a part of the road where there was only a small bridge wide enough for cars, so the bus started trying to turn around by backing up and turning around, of course it was really black outside, night time, and so we get half way turned around and there is this post that is blocking us from completely turning around. So he tries going back even a little more and then the back window smashed, we had hit a tree branch and here they don't have safety glass, luckily I was sitting in the front of the bus. I don't think anyone was injured, the funny thing was that we just kept going like nothing happened. haha We made it home safe. I don't think they have a drivers ed class here. haha
Saturday night after the baptism, the youth performed the dances that they had performed at the temple celebration and they did it for a FHE event at the church, so that was fun to watch after the baptism. The baptism gave me a headache, haha all of the stress and the greasy lunch that some members gave us, it was really good and a kinda like milenesa but a batter was used instead of bread crumbs, and then deep fried. It was good, but I didn't feel good that night haha, but luckily I was able to sleep it off. Then yesterday was a busy day and we had lots of work and now the challenge of finding the next baptism. We have some younger kids that could be, so we will see. :)
Well, I love you all so so much!! Thanks for all that you do! Have a great week and I'll be thinking about you. :) Oh and ask Brother Bartholomew how it went in BsAs, and a special thanks for the service to bring the package. :)
I love you mom and dad, enjoy General Conference!! :)
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
No comments:
Post a Comment