Another wild week!

First, I have to give the biggest shout out to my daddy who had a birthday yesterday. I love you so much! The last birthday ever I won't be there...besitos! :)

This week we were finally able to get Olivia a triple combination. Because she has been studying so much out of the gospel principles book, she wanted to know where the book of Moses was etc. We got her one and she loves it!

We had dinner this week with the cutest family, the Juan Amor Garcia Family. After dinner they gave us super yummy grapes from the vine to take home. J There are lots of perks to being a missionary.

Isabel Castillo had her baby!  It was early, but she is doing ok. J President Bleak asked us to go and see her. She had her about a month early and c-section, obviously. The baby is ok, but it was kind of scary. Usually you can only have two people at bedside to see the babies (one parent and a guest). Well because we came for “religious purposes” to make a prayer they let both of us go with Hermano Castillo. J She was so little and sweet! We were the first people to see her who weren’t family.

We finally set a baptismal date with Maria de la Luz! We are still working on getting her a new job and getting her husband’s divorce taken care of, but when that happens she will be solid.

We did a challenge last week. We read the entire Book of Mormon in one week. Every extra minute we had, during lunch at night and during studies, we were reading. We went crazy with it. I felt like I got so many different things out of it this time.

Olivia’s baptism was almost perfect. We still don’t have hot water, so we were prepared this time and had more big pots so that we could boil as much hot water as possible. Also we used the big thing that heats up food. It connects to the wall. I am not sure what it is called. Anyway, we are basically pros at this now. We had two big garbage cans with new liners in use. When the elders got there we would have them go take the hot water and dump it in.

The elders also created a contraption from their stove burners. It is was so sketchy! I am pretty sure one of them got shocked. They had it plugged into the wall and then the burners in the water. We also were able to get the room all set up looking nice. We did something different this time for the baptism. Usually we have some kind of film playing while people enter. Well, our members were getting too used to it and weren’t being reverent. So we played Mo-Tab music while they came in. Olivia came right on time. We had time to get her dressed as well as take pictures.

Our ward mission leader didn’t show up so we had to start late. It was ok though because Preskdent Bleak conducted. Olivia was so cute. She was responding to everything. As President Bleak kind of gave an introduction and during the talks she would say, “Si…es cierto.” Haha. We walked with her to the back and then she had to remove her thing on her leg.  She used her crutches to make it to the font from there. Then she decided to sit down and slide into the font. Her one leg does not work. She wanted everyone to know that her polio has never held her back. The baptism was beautiful and very smooth for the most part. I had to remind Elder Hurtado how to hold her correctly though. How he had her she wasn’t going to be able to plug her nose. I have already seen that on my mission and it isn’t pretty. J After the baptism, we closed the curtains ASAP. Then we helped her out of the water. It was a really neat thing to watch. She was kind of floating in the water for a bit, but thank goodness it was warm, it wasn’t too bad. 

Right after the baptism, Sister Venegas and I had an intermediate program planned. We actually taught the Restoration of the Gospel using huge pictures and it was super successful. The spirit stayed and everyone was reverent. Olivia changed faster than Elder Hurtado, even with her leg. I was impressed! Then we were able to commit everyone to pray about what we had taught them and write their testimonies for Olivia as well as advice (oh she loved that). She gave her testimony at the end, which she had written out. I will have to get a copy. It was amazing! She cried when she talked about her kids in jail and then she quoted the “4 Minutes” talk from last conference as well as some other gospel material. It was sweet.

We didn’t realize how tired we were until after the baptism, especially from hauling the boiling water in huge pans. We were wiped out. At church the next day, Olivia showed up pretty late! I was WAY nervous. But eventually she showed up and her confirmation was beautiful. 

Guess what? The Astudillos came AGAIN! We currently do not have a nursery, so her 3 year old twins can’t be left in the primary. While I am in Gospel Principles with the parents and two children, we did temporary splits and Sister Venegas was in the primary. Well the lady that usually plays the piano from the English ward didn’t come, so they came for me. Then I went back with the parents for the last hour which was combined. Then the kids went crazy, so we went up to a class in Primary. These kids are adorable but quite the handful. I am just so happy that they are coming back to church…yay!

Other than that, we are just working hard. Tonight Olivia is coming out with us to do some visits and she even thanked us for inviting her! J I wish everyone could have that attitude.

One last thing…I found a quote out of an old Ensign or something and here is it by Elder Cristofferson,

I have heard a few parents state that they don’t want to impose the gospel on their children but want them to make up their own minds about what they will believe and follow. They think that in this way they are allowing children to exercise their agency. What they forget is that the intelligent use of agency requires knowledge of the truth of things as they really are. Without that young people can hardly be expected to understand and evaluate the alternatives that come before them.

Think about that for a minute. I have always had a hard time explaining why it is so much better to (if you want to call it that) “impose” the gospel on their children, because the world thinks that it is taking away their agency. But I love this quote because we know that no, it doesn’t take away their agency, but actually allows them more freedom in the end, helping them intellectually choose and understand the alternatives before them. Let us please do this with our children! LOVE YOU!