Week 38: July 29, 2019: Baptism de Maria

So Tuesday in the morning I made some cookies and was gonna bake them and give them to my district for district meeting but the oven didn't work. We ended up just eating the dough, which was probably better. If i get parasites from that I don't care.

The rest of the day was pretty boring. We went to Chuisuc and met with our super pilas investigators but it turns out they're actually not super pilas which is pretty disappointing. Jose, the dad is pretty awesome and we could baptise him super quick if we wanted to, but rn were waiting for the rest of the fam to show some interest.

HIs wife is like mas o menos. She seems interested but at the same time like she doesn't care. Their oldest kid has 17 anos and he won't come to meet us. The daughter with 14 anos is like super Catholic which is super weird cause no one in their family is religious. Then their youngest, 12, is pretty awesome and he gets excited to listen to us but won't come to church. But we'll see about that.

Later we had a cita with another pretty pilas catholic family. They love to listen to us, ask us questions and everything but they just don't understand the restoration even though we've explained it super thoroughly like 5 times. That's the problem here. Everyone believes that every church is true. That really, church is in your heart. Which also makes no sense because everyones so faithful to their church and won't leave it for any other one. They also talk trash on other churches. It's frustrating.

Wednesday, not a whole lot happened. We contacted a lot. 

Thursday we spent the whole morning in the house because we always do weekly planning on Thursdays and we also did our studies. After we went  to lunch and it rained super hard. I learned that my water proof boots aren't super waterproof. 

Friday I went on divisions with this guy named E. Santesteban. He's from Guate. We went to his area in San Mateo. We did service with his neighbor who's 21 and super cool. Then his friend showed up and helped us. Ive never heard so much Jerga. Slang. After we did some missionary stuff. He's a decent guy just says some weird stuff and is super lazy. Later that night we ate corn on the cob at his bishops house. Apparently its helote season which means it's the season for eating corn on the cob. They smother it with mayo, chapin ketchup, picante and cheese. It's not that good. Chapins put mayo on everything and I have not gotten used to it.

Saturday was kinda loco. First E. S. didn't wake up til 8 and we had to leave to meet up with our comps. We met back up with our comps in a place called Xelapan which is basically Guatemalen Kneaders but more overrated. After that we got a call to go do service and move something. I thought it was gonna be super easy. We ended up unloading and putting 500 cement blocks on the top of their roof. Because I was the tallest they built a little platform for me and handed me blocks and I reached up and put them on the second floor. It was very tiring.

Then we were running around trying to get everything worked out for the baptism. Then the obispo gave us the baptism clothing and it was way too big. So we tried seeing if any of the areas around us had a dress for baptisms and nobody did. The baptism was in like 30 min. Finally one area said they had it and then we had to go get it, we hoped in the back of the truck of this one hermano like I've done in the past. Then the guy turned right on to the main road. Basically like state street in Utah but a lot crazier. He was gonna take a turn but apparently it was the wrong turn and so then he tried to correct himself but then just turned into oncoming traffic. Then he reversed and went into oncoming traffic the other way. Everyone was honking. A big chicken bus came behind us tailgating and blasting its horn before passing. It was pretty funny. Then we got to the baptism and she was already wearing the clothes and I think some hermanas helped to size it better. So we didn't even need the dress. The service was pretty good. After we had a ward activity and then we had some citas with people.

Sunday was the confirmation of Maria. Super important because its' not a baptism without the confirmation. We called the guy that usually sends someone to pick her up and he said nobody had gone. So we went to pick her up with someone else. There have been times with her where she forgets about church and either leaves to go work in the field or just go to the mercado or something because she's super old. So we were kinda scared when she didn't answer. We ran to her daughters house and she wasn't there. We ran back up and checked her cornfield. We were walking and I heard a yelp so I turned around and saw my comp disappear. He took a wrong step and fell down a ledge like 6 feet tall. The good thing is he landed in a pile of dirt so he didn't get hurt, but he was covered in dirt, and we didn't have Maria. It was pretty frustrating. We showed up to church late just to find Maria already sitting down. I wasn't even mad. But we confirmed her and it was all good. But everyone was confused why my comp was so dirty.

We had a lot of citas in the day, we had lunch with a cool newly married couple. We had a cita with the grandkids of Maria. They're like the catholic fam were teaching. They don't understand why there should only be one church but they love to ask us questions. We were gonna teach the plan of salvation but ended up just answering their questions about life. I don't want to act like I know everything but it feels good to know the answer to all their questions. I just wish that would give them some sort of testimony about us. After we had a cita with a member that wanted us to explain her baptism and covenants better to her husband. It really was just marriage counseling which was very awkward because all their kids were there and they have a very rocky relationship. The member is super pilas though. She got baptised a year ago and has been sleeping in a different room because she's not married with the guy and wants to keep the ley de castidad. She's super cool. But we can't actually tell them what to do cuz it's against the reglas. 

Anyway thats basically it. Today we're just gonna go play soccer and buy food like normal. I did get a call this morning though that said E. Santesteban got emergency changes, so that was pretty funny. Haha. Adios pues Adios.

Elder Severe