At the beginning of last week we weren't sure how everything was going to play out for the baptism. If you recall, the second oldest daughter in the vargas family didn't attend her interview, church, and locked herself in her room when we visited. Wednesday God helped us organize a lesson that packed a spiritual punch. The new pimary president came with her daughter who is a good friend of the oldest Vargas daughter. Claudia came who was just baptized into the laurels 2 months ago and shared her experience preparing for her own baptism. A Relief Society president for an English ward comes to teach the girls piano lessons, and her lesson happened to be a the same time as ours. With a small member army on our side, the first miracle was that Nadely came out of her room to find out why there were so many voices in her living room. She was immediately grabbed with welcoming voices, and tender comments which brought her in to sit down with us. We very generally taught baptism as an essential part of becoming clean and preparing to enter into Heaven. All of the attending sisters helped explain in their own ways and their testimonies brought a powerful spirit. We opened up the lesson for general questions, and leslie started in her sweet 8 year old voice, "what is the holy ghost?" How can you feel anything other than adoration and compassion toward such a sincere question?
As the questions became deeper and depper Nadely finally asked, "If someone wanted to get baptized, would they have to wait a long time?" Knowing her thoughts, I was filled with a powerful feeling of love, far beyond my own capacity to feel as I got to respond to her, "No Nadely, you can be baptized this weekend with your sisters." Leaving that lesson we wanted to give un-ending prasie to God for the miracle he worked in the hearts of that family.
We went to the border again on friday. I love the border. We goofed around the fence to Mexico for just a moment. I served in Carrizo springs and we had a very successful evening. On the way back I had one of the bigges burritos of my life. It's called the burrote, which means a big ol' burrito. I had them put al pastor meat in it, which is my absolute favorite taco meat. I think it's pork? They then deep friend the whole burrito. That seemed unnecessary, but it definitely added to how fast it filled me up! From noon saturday I ate half a sandwich in the evening and wasn't hungry until after the fast on Sunday. Unreal.
The baptism. Ugh. I got back from the border at 5, we had the service scheduled for 7 so we ran over, and started getting things ready. At 5:45 we started filling up the font. At 6:05 it was basically full. Wow, that's an hour faster than any other font i've ever used. At 6:45 we come back, and the font is empty. The switch to plug the drain is broken and we can't get the water to stay. We quickly improvise and stick a towel in the drain. It plugs some of the water, and we're just hoping we get enough water to lay the girls into on their backs so the baptism can still go through. We leave the water on, and leave the font (error). The girls make it 10 minutes late so it's been nearly 40 minutes since we've left the font running. Maybe the switch started working again, or maybe the towel was more effective than we gave it credit for, but we took one step into the basketball court and there was water pouring in from the direction of the baptismal font. My stomach drops and we take off running. The font had over filled past the overflow gutter, into the girls bahtroom and out into the hallway. We start mopping and there is just way too much water to make it unnoticable.
Later we found out the drain in the woman's bathroom drops water directly onto the ceiling of the church services office on the bottom floor. Several ceiling panels crumbled into a pile of mush on the floor. The service gets started, all slew of missionaries are there trying to remediate the affects, and in no time everyone knows. The baptism happens, and everything held still for a moment, and the spirit testified of the ordinance. As the service ends the bishop and the building coordinator begin to move fast to continue the cleaning process. At 10:45 we leave after cleaning up and leaving a slew of fans out to dry off the basketball court. the area building coordinator came down to talk to us. elder masters had shakes waiting for us when we got back and they were sure appreciated.
I learned this week that the manuals and the handbooks are inspired to give us instruction and patterns so that we can receive personal revelation to act in the offices to which we've been appointed. I understand that the Glory of God is light. We attain light as a natural result to obedience to the laws of the Gospel. The girls were confirmed and they received the holy ghost. This lets gods spirit, or his light be shed more abundantly upon them. No one can enter Gods presence without that great gift.
I love you,
Stay Salty
Elder Tyler Meidell
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