Thanks to the power of fasting "Carlos" was baptized! We learned this last week that one month ago the priest quorum fasted to bring in a new member to the quorum. That week Carlos showed up to his cousin's baptism, accepted his copy of the Book of Mormon and started cruising through it. He quickly gained a testimony, never missed a meeting, went camping with the scouts and was baptized himself 3 weeks later. The priests fasted, and the following fast Sunday Carlos was confirmed into the church. He'll receive the priesthood in a few weeks and be an addition to the quorum in no time. He told us he was thinking about getting ready to serve a mission. That would make me the happiest person in the whole world!That's just one more testimony block saying that the finding work belongs to the members.
You may not believe it from this picture, but Carlos, on the right, is 16. I thought he was 22 when I met him, because he's a real big guy. His uncle John calls him Slim, because offensive nicknames are cool in Spanish. We've gotten into the habit of calling him slim shady.
An additional testimony to the strength that the Lord can give us was found in the actual baptizing of Slim. We thought Al, one of the priests, should be the one to baptize him. There was the concern of him not being able to lift slim back out of the water... a legitament concern; but Nephi broke out of so many cords and bonds that either Nephi was the first Houdini, Laman and Lemuul couldn't tie knots for beans, or God can give us the strength to do all things. Al got him right out of the water, and it was sweet.
Carlos' mom Juana (right next to me) is investigating and has a baptismal date for the 26th of July. She's doing great, we hope she keeps it up! Another family that came to church yesterday was the "G" family. There's 5 of them, the parents, 2 girls in high school and a little boy. Alcohol seems to be the only foreseeable hurdle.
4th of July Exchange! In this classic Texas Scene, Elder Mora and I had a pretty uneventful day together on the 4th. I love my tico from Costa Rica! We had to be in by 8 o'clock and we just saw a few fireworks from a distance off the balcony of our apartment. That's pretty much all I can say about that. We heard the next day that everyone went down to the bridge to Mexico and got super drunk and shot a bunch of fireworks off. The neighborhoods were totaled with fire cracker remains July the 5th.In other news, I'm getting a lot better at riding my bike without hands. My stinking satchel just falls all over the place so It's tough to turn, but i'm getting it down. Elder Mora showed me how to jump and get both the wheels off the ground. Pretty, pretty good.
The Meidell reunion looked hilarious. I was thinking about it all week. I really really wanted to be there. I wasn't really distracted, but I had a few moments where I sat and sighed to myself. I'm glad everyone stayed safe on the zip line tour! Did anyone do a wizard fight with the Roman Candles?!
I love you!
Stay Salty!
Elder Tyler Meidell
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