April 23, 2012

This week it ended up that we had three baptism instead of two. Sweet surprise. Diana and Kevin were baptized as planned and it was sweet and I will tell you about it in a little. But, this week we had the surprise baptism of Brian.  Brian lives across the street from us. We have been teaching him ever since I got here. All of his friends and his girlfriend are members of the church and he really wanted to get baptized. But the problem was that his Mom didn't want Brian to have anything to do with us and asked us to stop talking with Brian. Brian is a minor, so we had to respect her decision. We hadn't been teaching Brian for about two weeks when his Mom clapped our house one day and asked us if we could help her kids with homework. There were doing pretty bad in school and we said "Claro!" and started tutoring Brian's two little siblings two times a week. Apparently they started to do a lot better in school because this past Wednesday, Brian clapped our house, crying, and told us that his Mom said that he could get baptized if he wanted. Boing. It's sweet what a little service can do. So for the rest of the week, Elder Ramos and I prepped Brian for his baptism. In a baptism, the person can't have any excessive piercings. This was a big deal for Brian because he has both of his ears, his lip, his cheekbone, and his eyebrow pierced. He had talked with him for a long time about it, explaining that it is part of the Palabra de Sabiduria to take care of your body. He still didn't want to take them out. Right before the baptism we had a really sweet, spiritual lesson with Brian about repentance. After the lesson we finished with a prayer, and Brian left to his house. We watched him as he walked to his house. He walked up to his front door, stopped as if some profound thought had just hit him, walked back to the sangha (open sewer/gutter) and took his piercings one by one, and threw them in the sangha. Elder Ramos and I started cheering and laughing and ran out and gave him a big hug. I asked him why, and he said, "Piercings aren't me anymore." I said "Barbaro." The best part for me is that in the charla right before, neither Elder Ramos nor I had said anything about piercings. The Spirit is sweet.   

So this Saturday, we had the baptisms of Brian, Kevin, and Diana a la vez. Twas good. Twas real good. Elder Ramos baptized Kevin, Dianas brother baptized her, and Brians member buddy from down the street baptized him. In both of the baptisms, there was a whole lot of opposition. Neither of the families really wanted the baptisms to happen, but it made it even better.  The fact that when one is baptized, all of ones sins are erased was especially important for Brian. When he came out of the water, you could tell that he felt good and that a weight had been taken off of him. Way too good. Lots of tears. Boom. 

We also got transfer calls on Saturday night. It looks like I will be staying with Elder Ramos in Solano for another transfer. I'm totally happy with the non-change. Totally satisfied. Another six weeks in Solano. It looks like I will probably be Elder Ramos's last companion because he goes home in July. If so, he will be my companion with whom I have had the most time juntos in my mission.