Semana 6 en Los Arcos

"So now comes the story of the year: I call it the almost baptism of Lidia Jara Santibañez. So yeah Saturday we had some problems getting the keys to the chapel and the bishop went to fill up the font. When we got there the font was filling up way too slowly so we used the emergency fire house in the chapel to fill it up faster. Then when Raul tried to baptize his mom, her knees could not bend and her whole body just floated up. She is 74 years old, not exactly flexible. So we closed the doors to the font so the whole ward wouldn`t see. I think Lidia was feeling a lot of pressure. So we closed the doors and went around back and tried to do it again, but Raul was having problems. So the bishop used the extra pants and shirt that I brought (I have been learning from past experiences) and came into the font to do the baptism. I was one of the witnesses and every time that they did it she did not go under. And then the bishop told her that they were going to do it only one more time, and she did it, but her clothes were floating about the surface of the water. I said that she didn`t go under, but the other witness said yes and the bishop said yes and told Lidia it was okay, so she left the font and started drying off. So yeah I talked to our district leader and he said that both witnesses need to agree that the person and their clothes went completely under water, and since that didn`t happen we need to do the baptism again. Nice. The only problem is that we have not been able to talk to Lidia since and she still thinks that she did it fine and is good to go. So that should be an interesting conversation. Needless to say we will be praying and fasting very much for her to have the courage to do the baptism again. She was basically a golden investigator and I knew that everything was going too easy! Oh well we will work from where we are and do our best to get the problem resolved as quickly as possible. So that is the catostrophic news for the day.

"Now some happier news. Elder Krainik had changes this cambio and now he is in my zone, so I get to see him once a week for district meetings and possibly on pdays too. Elder Mawhinney is in his 3rd change in the coast, I wonder how he is doing. We will see him for the mision christmas party. This morning we went and hiked the same hill that the president took us to on our first day here. It was weird to be there again. 3 months have gone by pretty fast, I would say. The weeks are short but the days are long, as we say here. We have been teaching a lot of different people / families. Most of them are just from contacts we made or doors we knocked, and others are referrals from members or other missionaries. I don`t like to say too many details when we have only started teaching them though, because a lot of times we teach them once and never see them again, so I will wait until things are a little more sure befor I get my and your hopes up. Although I do have a funny story from one of the investigators. In Los Arcos, there are two teenage boys we are teaching, Nacho (nickname for Ignacio) and Jeffry. They are friends of Rocìo Muños, the only active young woman in the ward. They are both ready to be baptized but there are two problems: Nacho lives outside of the sector, and Jeffry does not want to set a date for his baptism. We are talking with President Jones about Nacho to see if he can be baptized here or if he needs to go to his own ward. But Friday there was a stake youth dance and they went with Rocìo and were wearing white shirts ties and slacks, they borrowed our nametags and pretended to be missionaries, it was pretty funny. They taught us a lesson about prophets which was good because it showed us that they understand what a prophet is and why they are important. I am hoping we can get everything resolved with them too so that they can be baptized soon. So we will see what happens with that. Thank you for your prayers love and support (and packages!!!) I love you all so much and can`t wait to talk to you!"