Busy, busy, busy!

I am actually going to try and give you a decent email this week! These past few weeks we have had no time being in the “terrible trio.” It was so much fun though. J I have so much stuff to update you all on!

This week is super exciting with Carlitos’ baptism on Saturday as well as Mariana’s. He is so ready! J We practiced the questions last night and he was talking about giving up coffee (remember, he is 8) “When I gave up coffee, it wasn’t a hard thing to do, because I know that our Heavenly Father wants us to keep our bodies clean, because they are temples.” We took them pizza last night for reading the scriptures every night.

After that baptism, we have a surprise baby shower planned for Isabel (Mariana’s mom and Carlitos’ older sister)…I really hope you understand all of the relationships here. It is kind of tricky. Mejor cuando los conozcan. J Anyway, we are worried, because she is 7 months along and her baby isn’t growing anymore. She is TINY! She might have to have her baby early. That is why we want to have the baby shower early. Hermano Castillo has been practicing how to baptize with his daughter. They are just the cutest little family and it has been so fun to watch them progress since the beginning of my mission.

Ana is doing FANTASTIC with her new calling as Primary President! We are still hoping to make it to the temple before I leave. That would be a dream come true. She helped us a ton to get the Astudillos to church this week. She is the cute girl that got baptized in December in Kansas and they moved here. They haven’t been to church since. Well because of Ana, we were able to get her there with her four children. It was quite the feat. We had Ana go by and pick up the baby and her five year old, and then another member picked up Hermana Astudillo and the crazy twins! They are the cutest but craziest kids I have ever met. God truly calmed them during sacrament meeting, plus we had books and candy ready for them. J I am so glad they came.

One of my SWEET teachers from the MTC sent me her wedding invite this week. She as well as my other teachers were such good examples to me. It is crazy how much I learned from them. My other teacher Hermana Vawdrey also got married.

So probably the coolest story from the week was with Olivia. Remember her? I sent a pic of her a few weeks ago.  She is super short and super spiritual. She knows the Bible really well. She is doing fantastic! This week we took her to the temple to have a lesson there. It changed everything! She said she felt so peaceful while we toured the ground. As we got talking more, she expressed her concerns with her leg. She had polio and wears a brace on her leg and has a hard time walking. She was worried about getting baptized with that. We told her that wasn’t a problem. J Then we started talking about her ancestors and how she could do the work for them. We have talked about it before, but it never hit her the same until Saturday. She started saying, I need to get baptized as soon as I can because I don’t know if I will live tomorrow etc. Then she said she wanted to do baptisms for her family. Hermana Trevizo offered to do the baptisms, because of Olivia’s leg and Olivia said “No, I would like to do them.” It was so great! Then she was able to meet the temple president. I swear her mouth was in awe the entire time. He asked her when she was getting baptized and she said as soon as possible (oh yeah, he totally speaks Spanish which was extra great)! Then he said, “How about tomorrow at 4?” and she said, “Sure”. It was totally a joke, but it was super sweet! We set the date for the 30th! And remember this woman was so against setting a date because she was going to do it in GOD’S timing. There is so much power in the temple…even just outside! I Love it!

Sunday was nuts! I am not going to lie. I had to play the piano, as well as give a talk, and we did a special musical number, plus the Astudillo’s came with their kids, and Olivia and so much more. I have never had a busier Sunday on my mission. I was wiped out when we left, haha.

But the BEST part of the week was getting to spend Hermana Fallentine’s last day in the field with her! We were so lucky that we got assigned to take her out. The departing missionaries contact their last day. It was so wonderful! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!

Anyway, I just love the temple and this work. Please don’t be afraid to tell people about the wonderful blessings we have because of temples….it is the GREATEST demonstration of charity that we have on the earth. LOVE YOU!