This week was a great week. I felt zero (or close to zero) anxiety about directing the area. Hermana Lewis acts more like a co-companion than a senior companion (not a bad thing), which has given me a chance to take more responsibility. This time, I felt ready for that, and it´s helped me be just a little bit more focused on the work. What happens in my area partly depends on me-- what I do, the choices I make. Before that would have scared me, but now the responsibility makes it all the more satisfying when things go well-- I feel like I´ve accomplished something. Hermana Lewis has been a big help so far. She´s cheerful, really sincere, and has good ideas. We´re getting along great. I´m going to enjoy being companions with her this transfer.
Our focus this week was trying to baptize our investigator, Alexander. He´s sixteen years old and dating a girl from the branch named Rocío. Every time I ever taught Alex, it was in Rocío´s house-- this was great because Rocío´s brother Cristian is a recent return missionary and he helped us a lot. But this meant that I´d never meant Alex´s parents. Rocío´s mom, Hermana Humerez, warned us that Alex´s mom a violent, foul-tempered woman who wouldn´t ever let him get baptized-- she made it sound like we would risk bodily harm if we tried to ask Alex´s mom for her permission! Last week Hna. Scott and I went with fear and trembling to meet Alex´s mom and ask if Alex could get baptized. We said a quick prayer beforehand and everything worked out fine. His mom, Maria del Carmen, was much friendlier than we expected and said she would talk to Alex´s dad about his baptism. Hermana Lewis and I went at the beginning of this week to see how that had gone. Maria del Carmen said she hadn´t talked to the father yet but said she would sign the form if Alex could pass the baptismal interview-- we usually have a parent sign the form before the interview, but that sounded fine. Later we found out that Alexander was going to be gone on Friday night, so he wouldn´t be able to have the interview at the usual time. We got permission from Pres. Peralta to do the baptism on Sunday instead (he very graciously rescheduled branch council so we could baptize Alex after church--this man is golden!) That was just a minor obstacle. We went on Friday to see if Maria del Carmen could sign the form first-- just in case she wasn´t going to be home after the interview on Saturday. She told us Alex´s dad didn´t want him to get baptized. We asked to speak to him, but he wasn´t home. Maria del Carmen told us that the father was a hardened alcoholic who believes in nothing and sometimes beats her and the kids--- this was no where near as suprising as it would have been when I got here. She didn´t want to start a fight with him, so she wasn´t willing to bring up the subject of Alex´s baptism again. We left discouraged and didn´t know what to do, but it only took about 15 minutes before I realized that we needed to find Alex´s dad and get his permission-- it was the only option. So the next night we nervously went back to Alex´s house. We clapped at the gate (we hardly ever knock here because there is almost always a gate) and Maria came out. We asked to speak to the father, but she told us that would be impossible. I asked if he was drunk, and she said yes. She said we couldn´t talk to him, went back into the house, shut the door, and left us standing there at the gate. We decided to say a prayer and we both felt the distinct impression to clap again. This time, Alex´s dad came out. He was kind of scruffy looking, but I couldn´t tell if he was drunk or not. We explained who we were and what we wanted and two minutes later we had his signature on the baptismal register.
Yikes! I´m out of time again, but the last obstacle was when we miscommunicated with Alex and couldn´t find him for the baptismal interview. Eventually, Rocio´s sister Magalí told us that he was with Rocío, helping Hna. Humerez at her job, which just happens to be. . .duh, duh, duh, DUH. . .cleaning stuff at a bar called "el diablo". We sent Elders Oliverson (the district leader) and Fish to pick Alex up on the way to the chapel so Elder O. could interview him. "Elders, we need you to go to a bar called "el diablo" to find our investigator"---one of the stranger requests I´ve ever had to make to my district leader. Anyway, Alex passed the interview without problems (when we reviewed the questions with him beforehand, his only worry was if the Word of Wisdom allowed him to drink hot chocolate--I love this kid!) and got baptized on Sunday. Phew! I´ve never had to work so hard to get someone baptized. But I enjoyed it. What an adventure!
I love you and miss you a lot. I don´t think I could handle being away from my family for a year and a half for a lesser cause. When I get homesick I can always remind myself how important what I´m doing is, which helps. It´s gone by fast so far, just like President Benton promised me it would my first day in the field. Tomorrow is my 5 month mark. The next 13 will go by fast too.
No comments:
Post a Comment