Companions for one more transfer!

Saturday night we got the AMAZING news that despite all the odds and the elders telling us that my comp was leaving....HERMANA FALLENTINE AND I WILL BOTH BE HERE ANOTHER SIX WEEKS!!! She has been here for 7 months.  I am so stinking excited! :) Don't know how I got so blessed to be companions with her for another six weeks but the Lord really loves us!    

 

Lunch at Olive Garden with some of my favorites!

 

Hermana Fallentine and I are in the same ward as the Zone Leaders and last Sunday one of the Elders got called to be an AP, so his companion was in a trio with the English elders this week. All the meetings and dinner appointments and everything else had to be accommodated for the English Elders and the Spanish.... so somehow Hermana Fallentine and I got stuck doing everything. 

I was really stressed out with a ton of extra things on my plate, but of course you have to be flexible and go with the flow when you are a missionary. :) It all ended up being ok, but we will be so happy when they aren't companions anymore.

Last Tuesday, we had a fun birthday dinner for Sergio. Our feet were hurting so badly at Walmart walking around and trying to get everything we needed. We printed off a funny poster of Sergio and his family. Then we got stuff for a pin the tail on the donkey game, and ingredients for cookies. It turned out to be super fun and Carmen was so happy we came. We ate delicious chicken alfredo stuff that she called “chicken spaghetti.” I helped the Young Women at New Beginnings by playing their song for them. My feet have been hurting so badly at the end of the day. I don’t know how it is possible to be more tired EVERY night and have your feet hurting ever more EVERY night, but it happens.

 

 

 

We took Hermana Silva and her grandson Rogelio with us to see Julian and his family. IT was perfect hermanamiento! Rogelio just got baptized this last Saturday with Mary. We did the pepper and soap thing talking about baptism and they loved it. Then we taught word of wisdom and law of chastity. And yes, we had all three kids doing the song “Stop, don’t touch me there! This is my no no square!” It was super cute. But just before that Hermana Fallentine explained chastity very simply, Yedith covered her ears and yelled, “Why did you say that?!?” It was so funny. She also had this huge grin on. Julian also thought it was weird. Anyway we set a date for them for the 8th of March so we should have consecutive baptisms the next few weeks! Rogelio found these fake flowers and gave them to us. I can’t even begin to tell you how cute this little kid is. He is super worried about his parents too because they smoke and drink and he knows that they shouldn’t. I pray that he can grow to be a strong missionary one day.

We were able to set 4 baptismal dates this week and we are stoked!

Esli is 12. Her mom is a member and her aunt and uncle are in our ward. Her family lived here when her mom joined the church but then they moved to Mexico and went inactive. They are back now and cute Esli really wants to be baptized! If we are able to meet with her enough this week, she will be baptized next Saturday. :)

Julian and Yedith cute 8 and 9 year old brother and sister.  They went to Julians friends baptismal service a bit ago and Julian decided he really wanted to be baptized, so we are now teaching him.

Liz and Vanessa cute sisters that are 21 and 18! We are actually teaching their whole family which is around 11 of them... but they are all never there at the same time.

It’s one of our companionship goals to get the whole family baptized before we leave! :)

Now to the best and most stressful part of them week, Mary got baptized!  Since it was a combined baptism, one of the Elders investigators and one of ours, we thought we would split up the responsibilities. Well Hermana Fallentine and I ended up doing everything! We were running, running, running!! Satan was really working on us and at the baptism about everything that could have gone wrong…went wrong. It started almost 45 minutes late because Rogelio didn't show up on time.  The water was too hot so they wouldn't get into the water so we had to start blasting cold water in the font. Then we had a video to play while they were changing and the video and DVD player wouldn't work.   THEN the 1 constant thing that never changes THE PIANO was even out of tune.

 

 

Let me explain. Hermana Fallentine and I did a musical number at the baptism.  We played "Nearer my God to Thee", her on the viola and me playing the piano and singing. I wrote a variation to the song earlier that week. The piano in the room we played in is an electrical piano and before the baptism started we had everything figured out with it. Well apparently the lady who played the other songs changed the key of the piano so when we stood up to perform it was way off! We checked the tuning on the strings and they were COMPLETELY out of tune.  Hermana Fallentine started re-tuning it and after the 3rd string being so bad we knew something was wrong with the piano.  We checked and sure enough, the piano was wrong, haha. 

BUT the most important thing was that Mary got baptized and that she was so happy and felt the spirit so strongly. She is more of a logical person and not an emotional person, but she told us how much she appreciated us and how happy she was and it was really cool. She is such a strong person. She gave us adorable gifts (scarfs and the shirts we are wearing in the baptismal photos). Her daughter and son and law came and they are super interested. We passed them off to the English elders. She really likes church and I know they will be getting baptized soon. I am so excited!

 

 

 

I seriously love my companion so much. I am a little sad that Ash's wedding is coming up, BUT I know I am where I am supposed to be and I am working hard. I love you all so much!