Claudia is doing wonderful. We taught her nearly every day this week. She wasn't feeling very ready for her baptism because she was getting really psyched out about the monumental idea of having to endure faithful to the end after being baptized. Rather than postpone her baptism and make her feel like it was an insurmountable barrier. we kept it at the set date so she could see that although she did need to prepare it wasn't impossible. As a result, we taught every commandment in 1 week and honed in on the baptismal interview questions. I think initially we took the wrong approach in thinking she had already felt the witness of the spirit, so as we rolled though the commandments which we taught on a door step and she started slipping. Her attention and participation wasn't there to the point that she leaned her head against the door frame and looked off into the distance while she listened to us. Correcting our original course we hunkered down and studied the next day, decided a doorstep was not a sufficiently spiritual location and called a member of the young womans presidency to come pick her up and take her to her house. We weren't going to teach prayer and reading because she was already doing those things, and had thought to share fasting with her. As we studied it was made clear to us a return to her fundamentals would strengthen her more than anything to feel spiritually prepared to testify to her interviewer.
As we taught in the Perez home on Friday, we invited Claudia to say a prayer, then in the lesson and then again on her own, to know if the decision to be baptized was what God wanted her to do. She committed, and in that lesson and again later that day she kneeled to say a prayer very mature for her age. As she came to the interview the next day she entered with confidence. We heard from her Sunday school teacher yesterday that she'd testified to her class that as she'd prayed and asked sincerely in prayer, she had felt her answer that it was true.
What a good story, and what a clear fulfillment of the promise to all those that will knock and ask, that it shall be opened unto them.
We've been doing a mission study from the for the strength of youth manual. Two pages into the reading I got stuck. I hit the sentence, "true freedom is obtained by using your agency to choose obedience." I want the answer. I know so far that agency and freedom aren't the same thing. I know our agency is our ability to choose to do good over evil, but I only know that being free has to do with Christ's redeeming power over the fall. There's more to learn. I did find a lot of specifics that I think I intentionally glazed over in my younger years. Such as... don't participate in media that is violent ... a date is a planned activity ... things like that.
My new companion is Elder Bertelsen. He's from Kansas City, Missouri. I'll have to remember to take a picture at some point this week. He has a great sense of humor. We've been able to get a lot of good work done in just these past 5 days. I can't wait to see how much we can do by the end of the transfer.
The Spanish test we made up for this last transfer was administered smoothly. We corrected the exams and so that the only thing that impedes the missionaries from learning is their own desire we're going to give back their tests, with the answer key attached, and the page number in our textbook where the principle being tested is found. Hopefully that helps everyone!
We've been cleared to start using the area book planner app on our ipads. That means no more clunky area books, and no more tattered planners! Whoo!
I love you!
Stay Salty!
Elder Tyler Meidell
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