September 30th

Exchanges! On the right, Hermana Poulton, me and Hermana Blake. SO FUN!

Running up the gigantic hill by our house in the mornings!!

BAPTISM PICTURES!! Hermana Nielsen, Samara, Patricia and yo!!

P-day at the castle!

 

Holy guacamole where to begin?!?!?! SO this was the first baptism for both Hermana Nielsen and I and neither of us were really sure of how to go about planning a service. Sure, there is a whole section in PMG about it, but that says NOTHING about clothes and arranging building stuff and everything. It was crazy. We definitely learned a lot about planning baptisms and there are a lot of things I would do differently next time. And by next time I mean later this week. But that's another story. Haha we were going insane finishing teaching Patricia and Samara everything that we completely forgot to arrange who to confirm them and we were trying SO hard to get someone in our lessons that could baptize them, but it was not to happen. Then, everyone and their dog was getting baptized Saturday and baptismal clothing was just not to be found. Until about 15 minutes before the baptism. Really it was crazy. Hahah but the service was beautiful and the elders helped us a lot and know we know!

SO about the baptism.  Samara and Patricia were SO excited for their baptisms and when they got in their clothes, they were even more excited. There were 7 people being baptized Saturday in our chapel from our district so it was a big service! Samara was 5th and Patricia 6th. They were in the front, so excited, watching the first 4 people be baptized, then the 4th man had trouble being immersed completely, so they had to attempt 4 times before it was good. And poor Samara, she´s only 8, she already was a little afraid of the water and that just tipped her over. As we are walking her to the font, she starts crying, saying she´s not ready, she doesn´t want to, and just crying. Then her poor mother was so upset and tried dragging her to the font, which made her cry worse. Then practically the entire ward was in the bathroom trying to calm the poor girl down. Finally, I made everyone leave and we walked Samara outside and Obispo Padilla and the Elders Quorum president and his daughter who is 9 came out and calmed Samara down. In the end, she didn´t get baptized. BUT Patricia did! And she loved it! And she is really glowing now! So incredible. And on Sunday, sweet little Samara told us that she wants to be baptized still, this week! Haha she´s such a mature, sweet little 8 year old! Whoo. What a crazy weekend! We were SO exhausted, emotionally, physically and spiritually by the end of Saturday night! But I am so happy for this family!!

Also, I have a Haitian mom now. Last week, a woman, Viergela, was baptized and she invited her friend, Eline, to the baptism and confirmation. Eline lives in our pueblo, so we started teaching her Tuesday. She is LISTA!! She said that at church she felt like we were the one religion she´s seen that actually follows Christ and that she feels like it is right. As we were leaving last time, she pulls us both into a big hug and said "Ahora, soy vuestra mama de Haiti!" She´s darling. And so amazing.

The other day, we were sitting at a bus stop waiting so we could go to our pueblo, and this big group of older, blonde British women come up to us and start asking us for directions. We wound up sitting there talking to them for about 10 minutes and they were hilarious! They are just older women that go travel the world together. And like half of them are named Marilyn. They were like little birds twittering on a wire. HILARIOUS!

So this week was insane, but next week will be even crazier and hopefully we´ll have another baptism this week! I hope everyone had a great week and an even better one to come! LOVE YOU!!