Carlie's very special baptism -- by her mission President Wright April 13, 2014
How are you all this week!? I had a lot of fun reading all of your letters. It is fun because it seems like things are going really well.
As for Chile news, they are kind of having problems. Not here! So mom don´t worry, but poor Chile does not have very firm ground. It continues to tremble here. Not very much but they are more common than before and there continues to be little earthquakes in the north. The big bummer this week was the fires. Like two hours north of me there has been this terrible fire that has left 11 dead and hundreds homeless. It is really sad to watch. So send some prayers down here. No worries for us - we are safe here - but Chile is suffering a little bit.
As for other exciting news, C__ got baptized!!! I am so happy! It was an awesome day! C__ got there late with his wife, but they got there. He brought his friends who are members to watch the baptism. He was so excited, and nervous. I realy love that man! He actually makes me think of dad a lot. During Sunday school we talked about the priesthood and I got to testify of daddy- daughter blessings and it just made me really excited that in a couple of weeks C__ can do that if he wants to. It made me think of how blessed I was to have a dad who helped me receive revelation through priesthood blessings. What a great plan families are! It was pretty exciting! During Relief Society right before the baptism, the ward mission leader (who is super pesado) called us out of the room to tell us that president (who was going to baptize him) had totally forgotten and was not going to come. After I peed my pants a little bit with stress, he told me that it was a joke, and before I had time to kick him in the shins, he threw his hands up in the air and said "yo no fui yo no fyi!" That is like saying 'it was not me!' 'It was all your mission presidents idea and he wanted me to specficially see how you responded.' So we went down stairs to find my evil mission president. He was lauging his face off and came to greet me (I am sure you all know this but that is super important here! You have to greet everyone with a kiss or if you are a missionary with a hand shake.) So he went to greet me and I refused. That is like a big insult in Chiliean language, so I felt content;) Don´t worry after I got over "Weeber" (the ten year old boy that 'lives' inside her that loves pranks) I shook his hand.
The baptism went great! The ward has had problems with the water heater and so for the last month we have been asking at the meetings to please make sure the water is hot. It was pretty funny because when they opened the doors of the font, this big cloud of steam came out. Poor guy got baptized in very hot water but at least it was not cold! After I got to play my violin and that was really fun. I played a medley thing that I made up. After Carlos bore this really sweet testimony about his conversion. He talked about his family and told us that he did it all for them. M__ sat on the front row bawling her eyes out. She was really happy. He talked about how he always looked at his member friends who had this happy marriage, and even though he knew that his marriage was good he knew that there was something missing. Then the missionaries came to his house. I could not help but cry as I listen to him testify of the hope this gospel brought to their family. It made me happy to think of the impresion I got in their house the first night when God told me that He wanted me to testify of eternal families. And all of the things I have learned since about etrernal families in their house! What a great plan! It was a great part of the week!
Other than that it was a great week! We are working really hard even thought this is the final stretch of my comps mission. We are finding menos activos that have been hiding for years. We found this cute old man that got baptized like 5 years ago but stopped going because his wife died. He was so cute because he is obviously just bummed and wants to be with his cute wife. He lives with his son and daughter in law, and grand child. When he talked about his cute wife the entire room filled with his spirit. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. He is completely in love with his late wife. He could have talked about her for hours. He suddenly asked us what our purpose in his house was, and after my comp answered that it was to help him go to church I told him, "Hermano, we are here to help your seal yourself with your spouse forever!" It was really sweet. He got a big smile on his face, and said "it looks good to me!"
We had an awesome reference this week too. It is this girl that suffers from depression. She is a sweet heart and really needs help. It looks like she has cancer which obviously makes the depression worse which could make the cancer worse. It is not a very fun process. It felt good to testify to her of Christ's atonement and the love of God. It works. I have seen it in my own life and many others. We only got to see her once so we will see how it continues with her.
Everything else is going great! We are working a lot on finding new investigators. It is a process so I don´t really have any new updates. I am happy! Life is good! It is hard but there is so much good! We had a lot of people this week who were focused on the bad. I learned that there is plenty of bad to focus on. It is not very hard to find heart ache and pain. But I am also learning that finding the good is not that hard either. God lives! Eternal families are possible! We just have to fight for them which makes sense! God has this awesome plan that provides a way to mess up but get back on the path. It is like what dad said. In Lehi´s dream he saw the tree and focused on the tree for the first half of the chapter. The other stuff is important but let´s be honest the center is the tree! If we just focus on the love of God the building is not tempting the dark clouds become less confusing and the big desert becomes less overwhelming! I know God lives! I know He loves us! I know that if we just focus on that love we will end up walking (or as mom says: running) with our families enjoying the tree! thanks for enjoying the tree (love of God) with me! I really am serious about studying Preach My Gospel together! Elder Ballard was pretty specific about it. Where are we starting? I was thinking that this week it would be cool to study the attributes of Christ! Does anyone want to do it with me? It is chapter 6 (I think) I love you all!!! Thanks for everything!
Hermana Webb
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