Baptism!



Catelina's Baptism!

 

Hey fam,

This week flew by. They say everything goes a lot faster and is a lot more fun when you’re baptizing, and I can testify to that! Tuesday was a fun, or rather a very funny day.  A recent convert of about 2 years invited us over for lunch on her birthday, she’s about 45 and has kids in primary and young womens. Her mother, who is not a member and is legally blind, also came.  Everything was going pretty normal until they brought out the cake that the old blind lady had made. It was chocolate and banana, and tasted terrible...I could have sworn the bananas were rotten or something. So we finish eating the cake, and the mom starts cackling over in the corner, and we ask what is so funny.  She then tells us that she spiked the cake with liquor AFTER it had been cooked, and that is why it tasted so different and was so moist that it was literally soaked in alcohol.  Needless to say, everything from that point on that day was a little off!  I had made it nearly 19 years without ever partaking of a drop of alcohol, then 3 months into being a missionary that´s not true anymore.  Definitely not a story I was expecting to ever tell!

Thursday Catalina passed her baptismal interview.  This is the 17 year old girl who is neighbors with the stake president and showed up out of the blue to General Conference and loved it.  She had been prepared for baptism before we even showed up.  Saturday was the baptism, a very good day.  My first baptism of the mission, hopefully the first of many to come. The stake president performed the ordinance, which was really cool because he has known her since she was a toddler. On Sunday she got confirmed, and Alejandra showed up for church.  Alejandra will should be getting baptized this upcoming Saturday, 2 baptisms in 2 weeks!  Which is really good in this area, they have only had about 8 in the past year. I was supposed to give a talk on Sunday as well, but the other missionary who spoke, not my companion, took over 30 minutes so they postponed my talk for another week. It was also Mother’s Day here in Argentina, and we had dinner with Hermana Martinelli, who has been a widow for about 25 years. She sends her saludos (best wishes) to the family, specifically Mom, and says thank you for allowing me to leave yall for 2 years to come bless the people here.

The strangest thing I have eaten in Argentina, other than that cake, is blood sausage.  They do celebrate Halloween, but it is not as big, and there is no peanut butter.  The best thing of the week was definitely the baptism.  Funniest thing this week was the whole day of Tuesday.  Something I am grateful for today would have to be pictures, because they bring back lots of memories.  If I had to give a talk, it would be on Mosiah 18, the baptismal covenant...oh wait I am giving a talk on that soon!   It is awesome to hear how well everybody is doing, and how much fun yall are having.

Love you all!

Michael  

Our District


 

View from our apartment