Week 92 & 93

Hey all of you lovely children of God! These past weeks were awesome!

Miracle:

Our miracle of the week was that three of our friends, Amanda, Jhon, and Alexis, got baptized!!! We are super excited for them and for their decision to let God prevail! However, I wish I could say that their baptism ran smoothly...

So our ward decided to take the baptismal services into their own hands this time (which we were okay with of course) by making the programs and inviting people and everything. The day of the baptism, we asked our ward mission leader if he needed help filling up the baptismal font beforehand, and he was like, "Nahhhh I got it." We showed up 30 minutes early to help our amigos with the baptismal clothing, but right when we showed up, our ward mission leader showed up...... to start filling up the font..... which takes an hour and a half to fill up...... so yeah we had to stall a bit.

6:00pm hits and all of the members show up, but the water isn't even a foot deep yet. We played some music and took pictures, and while we were taking pictures, the fire alarm went off.... for like 10 minutes. Apparently the Tongan ward was doing a trunk-or-treat the same night, and they were using the kitchen and accidently burnt something. So there we are, trying to feel the Spirit, with a fire alarm blaring off, and the water is still rising poco a poco in the font. We finally started the service an hour late, and it actually went pretty well considering the previous chaos. I was able to personally baptize Amanda. It was awesome.

"You and the ward mission leader should do everything you can to ensure that the baptismal service is organized, inspiring, and memorable." (Preach My Gospel, ch. 12) Oh... it was memorable all right.

Epic mission story:

So we were heading through our apartment complex back to our car because it was about to hit 9pm, when we spot a guy named Francisco chilling by his car, blasting reggaeton, cigarette in hand, beer on the trunk bed, you know, the usual. We walk up to him and strike up a conversation. He was partly drunk - not too drunk to not make out a word that he was saying, but just drunk enough that his conversation was all over the place aaaand.... he was willing to do anything we told him to do 😉

So I straight up tell him that he shouldn't be drinking or smoking, and he was like, "I know, I knowww." I ask him, "What would you do if God was standing right he-," and before I could finish the question, he takes the cigarette in his hand and tosses it into the street. 👀 He passed the first test. I took it one step further and ask, "What about that beer on your truck?" He goes, "Oh this? I haven't even opened it yet." I glanced around and spotted a dumpster not 100 feet away on the other side of the street. "Bet you won't toss that beer can into that dumpster." He goes, "Well if I throw it from here it's gonna explode!" "Bruh obviously. Just walk to the dumpster and throw it in there." "Aight, bet." So he walks across the street (almost gets hit by a car) and tosses the beer can into the dumpster from 20 feet away, making a beautiful clanging dumpster sound as it hits the bottom. Elder Barnes and I just looked at each other, jaws open, surprised that he actually did it. He walks back towards us and we high-fived each other. We could literally hear hosts of angels cheering above. Francisco is a stud.

So my mission is starting to come to a close, and it's crazy looking back to see how quick this has flown by, and how far I've come. I've set a bunch of goals and standards to make sure I work hard til the end of my mission. I really hope that when I get home, people recognize how much I have changed because I've gone through so much work and so many trials to grow into who I am today. My favorite experiences that I've had recently have been just being in a lesson or in a missionary meeting, and having an out-of-body experience of everything going quiet and I just see these people the same way that God sees them. It's the best.

I love being a missionary.

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1) Alexis' and Jhon's baptism!! They are so awesome! (Amanda still hasn't sent us the picture of her baptism)

2) Bowling with the district (and with the 4 other districts that showed up at the same time)