And I'm On the Board!

Oh yes, everyone, that's right, I am now on the board for baptisms! 

This week we had our first baptism, and I baptized my first person! Let me run you through everything. 

First off, sorry I didn't talk about it more before. We have been teaching this girl (18) for casi(almost) the entire time that I have been here. Her name is Jari Cumbia, she lives with her older sister and her nephew, is super shy, and works and goes to college in Chiclayo. She was originally going to be baptized on Sept 11, but it fell through because she said her parents, who live in Haen, didn't want her too. 

After threatening to call her parents and talk to them about it, we figured out that the actual problem was that she was scared that being a member of the Church meant having to keep a ton more rules. We were very relieved to get this out of her, and were able to teach her about the rules that members follow (this was actually while I was in Lima, so I don't know what we taught, but it worked!) 

After this we thought we were in the clear, until she told us that she was going to live with her parents in Jaen until November. She told us this a week in advance, so there wasn't time to get her baptized and confirmed before she left. This was really bumming because if she wasn't coming back tip November, it would be easy to lose her, but Heavenly Father worked another miracle and she ended up not going on the trip. 

So now that there was nothing in the way, we picked a date with her, for last Thursday. Then, between visits almost everyday, a screaming 4 year old who didn't want to be at the interview, and re-teaching some things that she forgot ,we got to the day! 

It was Thursday, September 25, and almost all that morning we worked cleaning and preparing the portable font and chapel. All in all about 3 or 4 hours of sweeping, spraying this plastic swimming pool with a hose, and moving chairs to wherever my companion wanted (he has a very strong ideas of how things should be to be perfect). 

Then came time for the actual service. Unfortunately, this didn't run over perfectly either... 

To start off, when we went to pick her up /walk with her to the chapel, her older sister wasn't home yet and she couldn't leave the house until her sister returned (I didn't actually understand the problem). So after standing around a ton and praying in my head, her sister showed up and was able to go to the service, which was also another miracle. 

Because of this delay we ended up getting to the chapel a few mintues after when the service was supposed to start, but that turned out not to matter because the bishop was much later than us. The bishop ended up not coming until an hour after it was supposed to start. 

So after changing, I ended up pacing back and forth for an hour reciting her names and the prayer to baptize her, so I didn't mess it up when it was actually time! 

Fun side note, when I changed into the all white, I got the biggest, probably dumbest smile that I couldn't get rid of the rest of the day:) 

Finally the bishop showed up, and after a song, prayer, and a few short messages about the gift of the Holy Ghost, the time came. In all white, we climbed into this tiny, portable pool that is the font here. Warm isn't the right word to describe the water like the fonts back home, but either the warmth of the Spirit or me being used to freezing showers made it so the water wasn't too cold. Then (drum roll please) I baptized her and cleanserd her of her sins! 

I will skip the part about how we had to do it twice because she kinda panicked going under the water and part of her head didn't make it and skip to the main point. I got my first baptism this week! Then yesterday we confirmed the Holy Ghost upon her which completed the process. 

I would say I am now addicted to baptized people (I am getting addicted to a lot of things out here) like I am to temple work. It was great to get an investigator to the font and making them a member of the church.  It was a great experience. Also through this I learned a ton and saw the hand of the Lord in almost everything that we did. 

Other than that not much happened this week, or if it did I forgot about it. I hope everyone had a great week and good luck with everything this next week! 

Now if you will excuse me, I have a village that I need to convert!

Love Elder Lewis