This week was probably the most full week I have ever had in my life. Let me tell you how many things had to happen all at the same time. This list isn't to brag, because I haven't been accomplishing all of these things, but the Lord has provided so many miracles and made so many wonderful things happen. By the end of the week, I'm left with desires to just sing praises to God and then raise up a general chorus of an LDS edit of "With A Little Help From My Friends." That second one is because one way in which the Lord has blessed me has been through the other missionaries here.
First of all, the moment you've all been waiting for:
Araceli's baptism!!!!!
She was baptized just this last Tuesday, with all of the new missionaries present (see the second picture) and, more importantly, lots of family and friends who are all nonmembers. Also, President McMullin was present. Also, tons of the Ward. It was the biggest baptism I have ever seen. I was super nervous while conducting, but it went really, really well. There were some crazy emergencies before though. Like the fact that all the water was terribly filthy, and there were only two hours before the baptism. So, to empty it out in time, we ran the pump and started to bucket water out of it and it was crazy. Fortunately, Elder Day, then assistant and currently a good friend and amazing missionary, filled every single bucket. Then, we started to fill it again and had to bucket water in. It was a crazy ordeal. But, half an hour before the baptism, it was all ready, and all the new missionaries were eating pizza upstairs totally unaware of what had just occurred below their feet.
It was so wonderful. Also, I don't know if all of you have heard about it, but we took the baptism (and the already set up projector and big screen) as an opportunity to promote a gigantic missionary outreach program that the Church is employing found on this link. It's called He is the Gift, and it's something really beautiful that reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas. It also extends the invitation to learn more about this beautiful Gift that our Father has given us. I love it so much. We showed it to all present and handed out cards. We invited all to come unto Christ as Araceli has, and even President McMullin stood to teach the crowd. It was the most beautiful baptism I have ever attended and I hope that it gives real fruits.
Anyways, there are lots of pics from Elder Valenzuela.
That was awesome.
On Monday I had a small miracle. We had lots of new missionaries coming in this change and not enough houses, so we for sure needed certain houses in certain locations so that eveeryone would have somewhere to live. On Monday, I got a phone call saying that one of the landlords was randomly backing out, and we wouldn't have a house somewhere that we needed one. My heart sank.
So, I went into the waiting room and said a prayer and asked what I should do and asked for a miracle. After that, I stood up, grabbed the Cartero, Elder Ramos, and we went to the area to find a house. We could only look for like forty five minutes and the hermanas had been looking for days, so there was very little hope for us. After thrity minutes of searching, Elder Ramos said we should walk a certain way, and that's when we saw a house that was really, really fancy and would be normally overlooked, but it said it was renting, so I called to ask for how much, and it was cheaper than what we'd been looking at and was totally empty. The owner liked the idea of missionaries living there.
It was a miracle! We got back on time and the house was moved into the next day. I couldn't believe it, but I said a strong prayer of thanks.
Then Wednesday was change day and we found our changes!
Elder Valenzuela and I were split up! Why? He's training his new office replacement! His replacement is Elder Aldaraca, from California. He's a really good missionary and just got done training a new missionary to be called here into the office.
So I'm with Elder Monzón, and no longer in the part of the Ward that gets to visit Araceli or Victor Fariña. But, the work moves along! I'm not sad about the change, because I know that they'll keep on progressing and keep being strong. Victor is now counted as active as of this Sunday, and we're so happy for him. I love that man and I'm so excited to see them go through the temple in six months (or however long it may take).
I've been so busy here and there's just so much to still do.
I don't have any more time this week, but that's the update this time! I hope your weeks are going wonderfully and I really hope that you are all becoming stronger and fighting harder. I hope that God be with you and I pray for all of you. You are all wonderful children of God, and I love every single one of you.
Sincerely,
Elder Harris
No comments:
Post a Comment