Holy Moly. It's already December. It seems like just yesterday
when I was getting off of the plane in Lima at 1 in the morning. So much has
happened since then. The mission is great. This week was great. Really hard as
for the missionary work, but we had a baptism. And that was amazing. There
isn't anything much cooler than seeing one of your investigators take the first
step and being baptized. It was such a great week.
Tuesday morning we had our district meeting and then right after
that we had a companionship exchange with the zone leaders. I went with Elder P
to the upper part of Paita. Elder P is a super cool missionary. He was in Lopez
Albujar right before I got there. So we ended up talking a ton about that ward
and all the people we know there and talked about how the people he baptized
are doing. It was super fun. Elder P is a super great missionary. He was made
zone leader with just 10 months in the field. He's a super great leader. He understands
his purpose as a missionary and he has a super great attitude about everything.
I feel like I was able to learn a lot from him. We had some pretty great
lessons too. That night we went back to his apartment and it just made me
thankful for the apartment I have. Mainly just because his room has a rat in it
that they have been trying to catch for the past few days. And their shower is
broken. They have to fill up a 5 gallon bucket with water and pour water on
themselves with a cup. Not gonna lie. That was my first time showering like
that here in the mission. It was pretty fun. I'm experiencing new things every
day.
Wednesday my companion had a training for District Leaders in
Piura so I ended up spending almost all of Wednesday with Elder P in his area
too. Not sure why, but Wednesday I got sick. It's pretty normal though. No fun,
but something you just come to expect. It's better to leave and try to work
with a fake smile, than to stay in your apartment. If it is at all possible, I
am going to leave and work. Being stuck in your apartment all day is
soooooooooo boring. And it's not the reason that I'm here on the mission. My
companion got back at about 6 and we headed back to our apartment.
Thursday was pretty hard. It was
hard to work, because everywhere we went no one was home! We had a Thanksgiving party with
President Rowley right after lunch. Well it wasn't really a Thanksgiving party.
It was just a meeting with our zone. We didn't even mention that it was
Thanksgiving. Completely forgot. We had a meeting and discussed how we can work
better as missionaries with the leaders of our wards and branches. It was a
super good meeting. Because this is super important. As President Monson said,
now is the time for members and missionaries to work together. After the
meeting, we went back to our areas and worked. After the meeting we got
the mail that President had brought with him from Piura and I got the package
with the Christmas tree and the cards. Thank you so much. I've only opened 2 of
them and they have made me so happy. It makes our room look a lot happier too.
Ready for Christmas! It was a hard afternoon too. Almost everywhere we went,
people were busy or not home. I love working with Elder C though, because we
just keep on working and don't let it get us down. When times get tough, the
tough get going. Now I know I'm not tough. Far from it. But I still get going.
That's the best thing to do as a missionary.
Saturday was by far the best day of the week. Because Saturday is
the day that Hermana Esmeralda chose to be baptized. She has been having the
missionaries teach her for a couple months and was super ready for her baptism.
I have only been teaching her for 2 weeks, but you can tell how much her
testimony has grown. We went to visit her almost every day this week just for a
few minutes to make sure she was ready and excited and she always just had a
smile on her face. She kept on saying how excited she was. Saturday Elder C and
I went over to the church to clean the baptismal font because it was absolutely
nasty how gross it was. It hadn't been used for months. We wanted everything to
be clean and ready. We wanted to make sure that her baptism was something that
she will be able to remember for the rest of her life. People started showing
up to the church at like 6 and there ended up being a really good turnout.
Especially from the Relief Society which we were super happy about. It's
important that she feels welcome in the church. My companion and Hermana
Esmeralda changed into their white clothes at like 6:30 and we took some
pictures. The actual baptism was super pretty and everything went really well.
As she climbed the steps out of the water she had a huge smile on her face. I
was so happy for her. After they had changed back into their normal clothes,
she had the opportunity to bear her testimony. Halfway through her testimony
the power went out and we were in total blackness. We didn't stop the service
though. We kept going and she kept on bearing her testimony. She kept on
saying. "voy a seguir... voy a seguir... voy a seguir". It was such a
cool experience. The spirit could be felt so strongly at her baptism. We
finished up with a song and everything in the dark. It was super cool.
Today for p day we went and played soccer on the beach with our
whole zone here in Puerto Paita. It was super cool. Then we went and had a much
needed cleaning session in our room. Holy moly was it dirty. It's pretty spotless
now though. I love having a clean room. It feels so nice.
It's good that Lauren isn't here. She would hate all the fish.
Yesterday with our pensionista we had huevera de pescado. It's honestly just
millions of little fish eggs. I gagged when I started to eat it, but after I
got over the thought that I was eating fish eggs, it tasted pretty good!
I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I have no doubt that this
church is true! Thanks for all of the love and support! Love you guys!
Elder Baker
Lauren, Sounds like you're having fun in Australia. Crazy to think
it's almost Christmas no?? Time flies by out here. Thanks for your example! I'm
so grateful to say that I have an awesome sister who is a missionary just like
me! The church is true! NO DOUBT! Tell it! Love you!
No comments:
Post a Comment