August 1, 2011

 Bernardo and me. You KNOW his name is Bernardo because it says so right above his bellybutton

 Baptism with Cristina and Lilly Marcella

 The horse and buggy Bernardo and Cristina use to collect trash in, and now to got to church in =)

The other day right after we got caught in a monsoon on our bikes

This morning we had a really strange service experience. There is a sweet old guy who we baptized earlier on in our Rama named Marcelo. This past Sunday we saw him in Church and he told us he had a favor to ask of us, but we couldn't talk about it at church, so he asked us to come to his house sometime that week. I was kind of wierded out, but Marcelo is a good guy, so I was not too worried. Later that week, when we passed by his house to talk to him he told us that the cemetery where his wife is buried just increased the rent and he can't afford the new prices. So he asked us if we could help him dig up his wife's coffin and move it to a tomb that is cheaper. My initial reaction to his favor was, "Can I wear gloves?" and my second was "Is this legal?" It ends up that moving your deceased wife is legal, so early this morning Elder Vergara and a few other Elders from our district met Marcelo at the cemetery and helped him dig up his wife and move her to a new spot. Cemeteries in Argentina are really different than the cemeteries that I am used to. All the graves are about 6 inches away from each other and super shallow. As a result, digging up the coffin was easier than I thought it would be. The whole ordeal was just really weird.

On Saturday we had Cristina and Lilly`s baptisms! Before the baptism, I was really nervous because I was going baptize Cristina and Cristina is not a small lady in any sense. She is an awesome awesome woman and probably my favorite investigator up to this point, but she literally weighs about 300lbs. I was afraid that I physically would not be able to baptize her. I said a few silent prayers while I was walking into the font that all would go well. Luckily the water was pretty high, and I was able to successfully baptize Cristina on only the second try. The service ended up being really special and full of the Spirit.