21 Octubre 2013
First off. Of course the Red Sox make it to the World Series
as soon as I leave on my mission. They will probably win this year and the next
year while I'm still gone and then never win again the rest of my life. It's
okay though. As much as it is killing me to know that I'm not going to be able
to watch the World Series with the Red Sox, I would much rather be here. Being
a missionary is the best. I love being able to focus on the gospel every single
day. My testimony has grown sooooooo much in the 3 months I have been out here.
I wouldn't trade this opportunity for 100 World Series titles.
This was such a great week. Such a blur too. Time flies by so
quickly here it is hard to keep all the days straight. Thank goodness for my
journal. It's kind of fun reading a page or two at night before I go to bed and
seeing how much I have changed since the CCM. I love this place so much. When I
first arrived I never thought I would learn to love Piura as much as I do right
now. It really feels like home. And I'm definitely growing to love rice. When I
first arrived I wondered how people could eat that much rice. Now I eat all of
my rice and want more! Rice is sooo good! The people here all know how to cook.
Every single day we get rice cooked a different way by our pensionista. No
matter how it is cooked. It is always amazing!
One cool thing that happened this week was on Tuesdayl You'll
never believe this but it was cold on Tuesday! I broke out my sweater that I
figure I'll use 3 times on my mission. It was because it was raining almost the
entire night and morning! Tuesday morning we walked to the stake center for
district meeting in the rain! That was pretty fun. I figure that it is
something that I'm not going to be able to experience very much on my mission.
Because pretty much every other day is just sun. Strictly the blue sky and sun.
There are hardly ever any clouds here.
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| Looking out our balcony on a cold rainy day in Piura |
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| First cold day in Piura |
The rest of the week did not stay cold though. The entire rest of
the week was HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my
life. And I just have to smile because every day is going to be the same way
now that it is getting close to summer! Luckily right now it still cools off at
night. I don't know if I'm going to be that lucky in the summer though.
The best part of the week was definitely this weekend with our
baptism! We checked up with him multiple times throughout the week to make sure
that he was still ready and excited for his baptism! Saturday night he had his
baptismal interview with the zone leaders. During the interview my companion
and I talked to the bishop and found out that his key to the baptismal font had
broken and that there wasn't anyone that had keys. So my companion and I spent
30 minutes trying to break into the baptismal font. Finally I was able to get the
lock to open with a pair of scissors. I still don't even know how it worked. I
didn't even break it!
His baptism was Sunday after church! The young single adults in
the ward all came and were super supportive of him and the decision he was
making to be baptized. I think it meant a lot to him that there are people that
came to support him who are going to be his friends as he becomes a member of
the church. The whole week I had been worried that either I was going to mess
up with the words in Spanish, or that he wouldn't go all the way under that
water and we would have to redo it. Luckily it went super smoothly! First try!
It was such a cool experience! A day that I had been dreaming about since
I was a little kid. The day I would get to baptize one of my investigators on
my mission!
Sunday morning before the baptism I was starting to become full of
doubts. Wondering if he was really ready for baptism or if we were just pushing
him to be baptized. I said a prayer asking for an answer. The spirit never
fails you. Pretty soon I was filled with calm thoughts and I knew that he was
ready for the baptism. After the baptism he had the opportunity to share his
testimony to all those who came to his baptism. As cool as the actual baptism
was, that was the spiritual highlight for me. He bore his testimony about how
he knew the church was true and that he had to "seguir adelante" [go ahead]. That was so cool for me--to see how
far he has come. He was nowhere close to being ready for baptism when we
started teaching him. But over the last 2 months he has gained a testimony of
the church. It is so cool seeing how the gospel can influence someone in their
life.
I love personal prayer. It is so important as a missionary. I
spend a lot of time praying. Every time I pray, my testimony is strengthened of
prayer. I know that it is real and that we have a Heavenly Father who answers
our prayers.
I'm so grateful to be a member of "La Iglesia de Jesucristo
de los Santos de los Últimos Días". I know that the church is true!
Love you all! Thanks for everything!
Elder Baker
P.S. You asked whether we had hot water in our shower ....
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I don't think it exists here in Piura. Here there
are two temperatures of water. Ice and Hielo [Ice]. haha.
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| Guess what? My Johnston & Murphy shoes are splitting apart from the sole already --it's only been three months. We do LOTS of walking. |
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