My companion’s got 3 weeks left in his mission, so he’s excited! He’s already planned his last day in the mission in his Agenda: Flight, Lunch with his family, and Welcome party! I’ve got so far to go that I can’t even begin to think like that, but I’m honestly happy I only have 10 months here, because one of the hermanas in my district, Hermana Meza, completed 9 months and she had a little party because she’s already halfway done! I don’t think I could serve for only 18 months! That’s way too short!
I’m happy about this week because we had a baptism (and the hermanas had another baptism), which is always great. The problem is that, for the missionaries, a baptism is the most stressful day of the entire week, especially if your ward mission leader almost never comes to church and didn’t prepare anything for the baptism. But either way, we’re always really stressed because a baptism is something very important and we have to have everything perfect! (So I got really stressed by our baptism because it was almost a big fail!)
The hermanas, on the other hand, had a baptism that was really great, except their ward mission leader ditched everything halfway through! He left during the Spiritual Thought and didn’t come back, and nobody had any idea what to do! So I just took the program from where he left it in the back and started leading, which is really weird, but I guess someone had to do it!
My companion always leaves me to lead everything because, as he says, I’m district leader (As if that actually means anything!), but it’s made me get used to leading and stuff. I don’t think I’m really a good leader, but at least I can ad-lib and fake my way through the stuff I need to do. So that stressed me out too!
Anyway, here’s a picture from the first baptism, from the hermanas. Her name’s Martha and she’s really cool — as district leader, I had to interview her to see if she was ready to be baptized — and she actually wanted me to baptize her! Unfortunately, our mission president has put a new rule that it has to be a member, so we got her friend Carlos to do it. I’m a little disappointed because I’ll never baptize again during my mission, but I’m happy that she got baptized by her friend!
As for our baptism, my companion got permission to do it because he, Freddy, didn’t want anyone else to do it, and it’ll be my companion’s last baptism, so…
It’s also been a pretty good week because my companion got his suri! Suri is apparently some kind of grub or maggot or something that they eat in the jungles of Peru. It’s actually kind of tasty (It’s got a flavor kind of like pepperoni!) and we all ate it as a district.
And just so you know what they look like from up close:
We fried them because they taste better that way, and it was kind of funny to see everyone’s faces! The hermanas were the funniest because Hermana Meza was trying to encourage Hermana Manrique to eat it (She didn’t want to!) and they both did, but when Hermana Meza ate it she almost threw up and had to drink water while Hermana Manrique ate it without any problem! (For the record, I did eat the head, too!) Achievement Unlocked: Suri!
Not much else to report for the week (Except for some crazy old woman that tried to stone us when we went by her house! Apparently she thinks we’re robbers, not servants of the Lord, so she picks up a rock whenever we pass by! Luckily it’s not in our area — I went to visit Elder Seminario in his area — and he was able to warn me about it because he remember where she lives! Some old people are nuts!)
— Elder Schroeder