Ya vienen los cambios… (¡Quizás mi último cambio de área!)
Well, I still don’t know what the cambios are going to be this time, but I’m almost 100% sure that I’m going to another area… and it’s very likely that that will be where I “die”! I’m kind of disappointed that I’ll probably be leaving my companion — Elder Pereira has been a really awesome companion and a great friend, but now that I’ve finished training him he (should!) be ready to guide the area by himself. I’ll be sad to leave Industrial, too, because I really like the ward and it’s been fun, but I can’t stay here forever! (And then it’s entirely possible that I don’t even go anywhere! Who knows?!)
Anyway, highlights of this week:
First, of course, is that Ruth was baptized on Saturday!
(She’s the girl there in the middle in white!)
I haven’t mentioned her much (I know I really should have, but I didn’t…), but we’ve been teaching her for about a month; she’s the girl I mentioned in my last report, about how we found her one day because she asked us if we could visit her, and last week she had shared her testimony! Well, as I said, we had been teaching her and her mom, Carolina, (she’s the woman to Ruth’s left, behind me) and her brother (the boy next to me) for a little while now but for a variety of reasons Ruth hadn’t felt ready to be baptized. Well, about two weeks ago she had prayed and asked if she should be baptized, and the next day (Sunday) woke up and couldn’t get the thought of baptism out of her head!* When we saw her at church that day, she told us, “Hey, I want to be baptized and I want to serve a mission!” (She had just heard about the mission in her Sunday school class!)… My companion and I just stood there a second, both of us trying to figure out what to say next! “Ummm… OK! When would be good?” So we planned everything so she could be baptized the 1st, and it was awesome!
It’s always something really special when someone you know decides to be baptized and make that promise with our Heavenly Father and our Savior! Carolina was crying, she was so happy, and she’s also preparing to be baptized a little bit further on! Baptisms always improve every week!
*Another cool thing about this miracle: For a while now, I have been praying every night for Ruth, Carolina, and all the other investigators that we are teaching, hoping that He would help them to overcome their problems and doubts and help them to choose to follow the Gospel — and it happened! It’s not anything new to know that God answers prayers, but it’s always great to see that he does it so personally, especially when we truthfully don’t deserve it!
I suppose the last little thing was our family home evening that we did with a family in the ward. We finished it, everything normal, and I expected that the compartir would be some crackers or something, like always… I was wrong! It was the dreaded TOCOSH!!! For those of you who don’t know, tocosh is what happens when you throw a sack of potatoes in a hole full of water and let it sit for a few months. Then you take it out, clean it off a little, and eat it! If you think that’s unappetizing, wait until you smell it — it smells like a sewer! Here’s Elder Pereira’s face when he tried it:
I’ve already eaten tocosh once, when my district and I punished ourselves for being late to the district meeting and/or forgetting our stuff, but my poor companion hasn’t ever had the pleasure! He almost threw up, and we didn’t even eat tocosh by itself (like I had tried before) — we ate a much tastier kind, mixed with cinnamon and sugar!
It’s been a pretty good week, and next week I might have changed areas and/or companions! I’ll let you know! ¡Chao!
— Elder Schroeder