Week 61: Maria's Baptism and Transfers!

Maria's Baptism

Hey

Well we had transfers and to answer the question that everyone has been waiting for, I am going to finish the mission of Elder Ramirez. In other words, we stayed the same. And this is the last transfer for Elder Ramirez, so I am going to be here in 4 Milpas for at least 3 more months. But these last 3 months have gone by super fast. 

I also have some very good news. Maria was baptized and comfirmed this week. wooooooo! It truly was a miracle. Thank you so much for all the people that prayed for her. This week when we met with her she said that she still was having trouble receiving a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Then we met with her again on Wednesday and still we did not see much progress. So we thought, we are just going to have her baptismal interview and see how things go. So on thursday we had intercambios with our DL and he was able to do the interview. And I was honestly so nervous because I had no idea what was going to happen. Then when I came back into the room our DL said to me, "Maria has a question for you." And I just thought, "oh no, she still has doubts about Joseph Smith." Then our DL said, "Maria wants to know what time her baptism is on Saturday." It was such a miracle. Thanks again to everyone back home who prayed for her and helped her to have the courage to make this decision. 

So Maria wanted to have her baptism at 11 in the morning. So my companion and I had to go to the casa de oración at 6 to start filling up the font. Then we went home, showered, and got ready for the day. It takes like 3 hours to fill up the font, so we went back to the casa de oración at 9. But when we went to go check on the font the entire back room was flooded! The font had overflowed and was spilling water all over the place! So to start, we turned off the water and used the hose to start a siphon to take all the excess water out of the font. Then we had to deal with the room that had about a half inch of water in it. This room is the lowest room in the house and you have to go up two steps to go out the backdoor, so we could not just sweep the water out of the room. So Elder Ramírez grabbed the dust pan (for those of you who don't know, the dust pans here in Mexico are metal boxes cut in half diagonally and attached to a wooden stick. It looks kind of like a huge golf club.) And with the dust pan, he started to golf all the water out of the back room. So we kind of had a system going where one person would sweep the water in front of the door and the person with the dust pan would golf all the water out. Then after about a half hour of that, with mops and fans we were able to dry the rest. 

Then we had problems finding someone who could baptize Maria. Obviously, we could do it but we wanted someone from the branch to do it because the missionaries come and go, but the members are always there to love and support. But everyone in Rosales told us that they were not going to be able to come (ahhhh) and one of the priests here has not come to church in 4 weeks. So we asked the District President to do the baptism, but he called us like 20 minutes before to tell us that he could not find his white pants. So after all that, I ended up being the one who got to baptize her. We were also so happy because when she showed up we could tell that she was excited for her baptism. So everything turned out okay. 

Then on Sunday, she was comfirmed by the district president. We are so lucky to have the District president in our area because his family is the only family that comes every Sunday. But when we were sustaining Maria, the President stood up and taught us a very important lesson about what it means to sustain someone. He said that sustaining does not mean that we simply agree with what is happening, but that we are comitting to act. He basically said everything that Alma taught in Mosiah 18. That by sustaining Maria, we are willing to bear her burdens so that they may be light, mourn when she mourns, comfort her when she is in need of comfort, and be there for her at all times and at all places. He reminded us of the covenant that we all made when we were baptized and that is what it means to sustain someone. Also he taught me a very important lesson of what to do when members do not come to church. I used to always think that if active members miss a day of church that it does not matter. That we dont have to worry because they will come next week and I dont want to bother them. But he taught us that if someone does not come one sunday, it is because something is wrong. They did not come because something happened. And it is our job to be worried and find out if everything is all right. 

But this week and transfer went by really quickly. Oh and I almost forgot. It has been raining here all week and I dont know if any of you remember, but we dont have any paved roads here!!! So we have been having alot of fun walking and riding our bikes in the mud. We have to rinse all the mud off of our pants at night so that we can use them again the next day. Also I have given up keeping my shoes clean but Elder Ramirez has not quit yet haha. 

Love you all so much. Thanks so much for all your prayers. They really do help. This baptism would not have been possible if not for all of your faith and prayers. 

con amor

Elder Snyder

A Family in our branch extension. 

As we were cleaning the house today…this is what I found. :)