Oh hey crowd!
So after much miscommunication and prayers, Antonio was baptized!! I don't have a connector thing anymore or else I would send pictures!!! Turns out, the divorce with his wife (who still lives with him) isn't final, so they are still married. ALL IS WELL. The baptism was absolutely amazing. We tried really hard to get as much member involvement as we could because we didn't want it to be a "missionary baptism". It turned out incredible. Between us and the other missionaries in our ward, we had so many investigators there! A family that was just barely baptized last month gave a few thoughts while Antonio was changing out of wet clothes, and they were amazing. They focused on how the gospel has blessed their family-it was the most sincere and powerful testimony I have ever heard!! At the end they challenged all the investigators to baptism....it was the bomb.
But Antonio was so happy. He was smiling all night and his countenance was so bright!! He's a musician (he plays the guitar) so he and I sang "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy" as a duet with him playing...that's going down as one of the coolest experiences of life! He got confirmed the next Sunday and received the priesthood as well. He invited me and Sister Kelemen to be in the room when he got set apart, so that was really incredible. The power in that room was palpable and there was no denying that there was a miracle happening. I felt so blessed to be a witness.
This week was awesome!! We have been talking as a district and made goals to find more investigators to teach. It was actually really, really cool. We've been having trouble as a district finding new people who have been prepared to hear the gospel. The people we contact on the street have been rude and coarse and we've gotten a lot of doors slammed in our faces. So we had a lesson about faith and how we need to work harder and call down miracles from Heaven. It's been amazing to see how much we can collectively push each other. Since that meeting Sister Kelemen and I have added 8 new people who we really feel have been prepared to listen to our message! One is a teenager named Freddy. He has these huge gauges in his ear and tattoos all up his arm, but when we stopped to talk to him he flat out told us, "I want to hear what you have to say. I want to change. I want to be a better example to my brothers and sisters." We talked about the Restoration and he said he knew it was true, and accepted to be baptized!!! Helloooooooo miracle!!! Man, it's always an incredible feeling, finding the people that Heavenly Father places in your path. It always comes at the perfect time, like moments of discouragement or exhaustion.Tender mercies are real, people!!
In the Valley, because we had a car and because it was 2387634 degrees outside, we never got to street contact a whole bunch. But here it the complete opposite. Being on a bike and having it be so nice outside, there are tons of people on the streets. Not gonna lie, street contacting is not my forte. It's been a struggle to open my mouth to EVERYone-not just the pleasant ones that already have smiles on their faces. I've learned a lot about faith...no matter how freaky or under the influence the person may seem, we have a message far too important. Exhibiting that faith has been an incredible blessing since coming to this area. It's helped me keep the eternal perspective more securely in my mind-they are all Sons and Daughters of a Heavenly Father who wants them back. Who am I not to open my mouth and help them to see the way home? Street contacting has (slowly) become one of my favorite things! Plus, that's where all the funny things happen. We contacted a mom on the street who launched into a 25 minute story about how she was dying of pneumonia but it's okay because "Jesus is coming in a few hours." Awe yeah.
My ward mission leader calls donuts "Pan de los Lamanitas" (Lamanite bread).
I have discovered a beautiful thing!! They don't exist in the Valley because the area is too far away. They are called MISSION PRESIDENT'S FIRESIDES AND THEY ARE THE BEST THING EVER. Basically once a month, the whole mission, plus their investigators and recent converts and anyone else who wants to come, gets together and has a big fireside. The missionaries put on musical numbers and they ask the recent converts to come up and share their conversion story and their testimony. It was so cool! It's basically a big musical fireside. There was a choir that anyone could sing in, so basically that was the bomb, made me miss performing just a little bit.....but the Spirit was so strong and the whole congregation was in tears when all the missionaries stood up to sing "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go". They weren't the only ones.
We met an amazing family this week. The parents' names are David and Sandra and they were a referral from the Mormon Battalion museum. We basically just went to their apartment, sat down and answered the bajillion questions that they had. After about 30 minutes of that, they were silent and said "Wow, I honestly didn't expect you to have answers to all of them." Usually when people grill us with questions, they just want to prove us wrong, but the spirit was so strong in the room and we knew that they just had a sincere desire to know. I'm so stoked to teach them!! They had a lot of questions about tithing....after a long discussion about that David asked, "Ok, so if I give a tenth of what I earn, what can the Church do for me?"...I went home thinking about that question. "What can the Mormon Church do for me?". We left him bearing our testimonies of the joy and security we receive when we know that we are living right. What can the church do for us? It brings us the greatest joy that we will ever experience. It allows us to feel God's love everyday. It let's us become best friends with our Savior. But it takes work. It takes every ounce of who we are. But it's worth it. It's always worth it. That is something I've learned on my mission-giving everything you have and consecrating yourself to the work, even though it's hard and it takes a lot of sweat and tears, is the best thing we can ever do.
I love you all so much!!! I'm so dang blessed to have you!
Hermana Hess
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