So this week was really good. We
went to the temple, did exchanges, and I had 3 half-baptisms. So, I know what
you’re thinking, "does he mean 3 half-baptisms or 3 and a half baptisms?
Were they not confirmed?" Well, let me explain.
On Thursday I went on exchanges
with Elder Palmer on the other side of Pantoja. I'll get into the details in a
bit. But that day we taught 2 brothers whose father was a reactivating less
active. So the missionaries there have had been passing by their house for a
while now and had set a baptism date for that Saturday. For one reason or
another the missionaries that have been passing have only taught them 2 of the
lessons necessary to be baptized before I showed up on Thursday. So when I got
there, Elder Palmer and I had to: go over the baptismal questions with them,
get permission from their mom, teach them all the commandments they didn't know
and everything else they needed to be pass the interview that next day, and be
baptized the following day. So it was really funny because I literally taught
them half of the things they needed to know and do before they got baptized.
And the funny part was the Elder Antuna, the actual missionary in that area,
was on exchanges for the second lesson that they taught them. Which means that
I had more lessons with these kids than one of their actual missionaries. So
there are two of my half-baptisms. But now you are probably asking about the
third. Ok, I'll get there.
So that Saturday comes and we get
to the baptism a little before 5 to help them set up and stuff. When we get
there I was a little confused because there where people from my ward at the
baptism for the other ward. I first I didn't think anything of it (maybe they
were friends with the less active or something), but when I asked if they knew
the two boys being baptized. She said no. So that's when I remembered that the
ward had a baptism planned for some 8-year-old son of a member at the same
time. So I went and found the other missionaries and they said that no one told
them that. So I don't know why, but I had to be the middle man between the
missionaries and the member, and how they where going to fix this. So after
running back and forth for a bit we eventually came to the conclusion that they
would just do it together. Then the member, the mother of the kid asked me if I
could baptize her son because she didn't have a husband to do it. So of course
I obliged and did the baptism for her son. It was cool, but I didn't even plan
on doing it, so I didn't have my baptismal cloths or a towel. So they squeezed
me into this really small white jumpsuit that looked really funny on me. (Sorry
no pics) It was almost impossible to sit in it. But that was OK because there
was nowhere to sit in the room with the font because it was completely full
with friends, families, and members from both wards. Anyway, That was really
cool and those were my 3 half-baptisms. Of course I'm not going to actually
count them as one, or half of one of my baptisms but it was nice to be there
for that.
They rest of the exchanges went
pretty well, as well. We ere teaching two recent converts about service. One of
them was nine and the other was thirteen. The lesson was going pretty well when
Elder Palmer finishes shareing and explaining Mosiah 2:17, and looks at me
to give me my cue that it was my turn to talk. I briefly explained that as
children they can serve in many different ways. Like they can serve their
friends, their brothers, their parents and the church. I said that
service was something very important and said that there was a primary song
that talks about it. I said," it goes like this" and I started
singing a song I made up on the spot. It sounds a little better in Spanish, but
it goes like, "service is good; we should do it every day." Then I
continued to say, "it's called service is good; we should do lt everyday.
I know it's really short, but it has a good message." Elder Palmer was
just trying his best to not laugh his head off. It was just one of those things
you had to be there for, trust me. Also, that night on the way home, we saw two
ladies get robbed by 2 dudes on a motorcycle right in front of us as we were
walking down a dark road. By the language they were using to express themselves,
I knew that they weren't happy about that.
Our Investigators are dong well,
but we still have a problem with getting them to church. We had some really
good lessons this week and some not so good lessons. So I will explain 2 of the
not-so-good-lessons right now. The first one was actual super good, but some
guy had some "ideas" and a lot of questions. He was a contact named
Manuel. My comp contacted him on Thursday during the exchanges. We went back on
Friday to teach him and his nephews who we were already teaching as references.
We got like a total of 12 people in that lesson with us and it was going super
well, but while testifying of Jesus, Manuel thought it necessary to ask me what
color Jesus was. So I said, "Well, Jesus is Jewish, so... uh... he is a
Jew."
He wasn't satisfied with my answer,
and responded with," No one really knows the color of Jesus. Isaiah 53
says that Jesus was ugly." (So real quick my side notes on that: yes
people know the color of Christ, Isaiah 53 doesn't say Jesus was ugly; I double
checked, and if your reasoning for why Jesus wasn't white was just because was
ugly, then your kind of a racist.) Anyway, I had a lot to say on that matter,
but I held it in because we had my important things to discuss. So we finally
moved on and the lesson went really well besides the continual barrage of
questions.
The other lesson was a little more
disappointing. We contacted this really cool guy named Junior a while back. We
showed up to his house and started teaching lesson 1, The Restoration of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was going good at first as we went from that we are
children of a loving Heavenly Father to the fall of the Church of Jesus Christ.
We had some good discussion going on, and it was great until my comp started
explaining Joseph Smith and bore his testimony on how he knew though the power
of prayer that Joseph Smith truly saw the Father and the Son. In the middle of
his testimony Junior stops him and said, "ok I was with you until right
there." and he proceeded to go off on how people can't see God and that
prophets can't exist any more after Christ. I tired to polity tell him that the
Bible states that many people have seen the face of God before and after Christ
and that the Bible uses the word ‘prophet’ to disrobe a hand full of people
after Christ. But he kept cutting me off and said that we can believe our
Joseph Smith thing, and that he would believe his Jesus Christ thing. As if we
literally hadn't been talking about Jesus Christ for the LAST 30 minuets or
something. I made it clear that we don't worship Joseph Smith but just Jesus
Christ. We just believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God such as
Moses of old. We told him that he would be able to know the same though humble
prayer. That's when he said," what I'm going to do is pray to give you the
same understanding that I have so you can be corrected from your ways. Because
you guys are still young and lack a lot of knowledge. And so that you'll know
that the Earth is too wicked today to have prophets." Then he told us to
get out of his house even though we weren't done with the lesson. Now I really
could have whipped out my Bible and roasted him and every one of his points,
but then I remembered the words of my farther." If anyone tries to Bible
bash you just bear your testimony and walk away." So that's what I did. I
testified that I know Jesus is our Savior, that Joseph Smith was a prophet,
that the world needs prophets now more then ever before due to the wickedness
of the world. And that though prayer. Then we excused ourselves as politely as
possible.
Now I don't know if I really did
that story its justice, but all the way home I was really upset on how someone
could be so hard of heart and go from being super nice to that in literally 30
seconds of hearing something you don't agree with. But as I was sitting at home
I really thinking about it and that feeling of anger turned to that of sadness
for all the people that are to stubborn to get on their knees and to just pray
to know if what those two teenage boys told them was true. That's all we ask, not
to take our word for it; but to pray to our loving, all knowing, truthful
Heavenly Father to have the Holy Ghost testify if what we teach is true or not.
Well, other then that, and the fact
that we have gone 3 weeks in a row with out running water, this week was pretty
good. We are seeing a lot of progress and every thing is going great.
Nothing is more beautiful then the
Dominican Peso
me in the metro in front of a lot of people
