Transfers...Staying in Morong

Transfer announcements this morning. I'm staying!!! Yay! Not so much a fan of the whole adjusting thing, but my companion is going. Dare I say it, I'm going to miss her.  Haha, seems to be how the Lord works in my life. I've noticed a pattern here in the mission...I get a new challenge, and it lasts just long enough for me to learn, grow, and then appreciate it. Then I don't have regrets. That's how it was with my last area, and again how it is with my comp now. I got enough time to really appreciate her and our time together.  Haha. I feel like a whole new person from when I first got here.

Shoot, where to start. I feel like I have a pile of stories from the past 3 weeks. We finally made it home around 10:45. Talk about the longest day of my life. I still just shake my head and laugh thinking about it.

So here’s my story for the week…. we had a baptism last week. Yay! Tatay Augusto. He's 49 and the only member in his family who is not a member. Until now that is :) He’s been an investigator for almost 5 years now and just hasn’t felt ready. So when I first got here, he had a baptism date but it wasn’t going to go through. Not ready yet. So we just started to probe as to why he didn’t feel ready and he was way open with us, which was great because then we were able to solve the problem. And I just said, “We want you to feel like you’re ready, so we’re not setting a date for you. Pray about it and next time we come back, you can let us know if you feel like you’re ready to set a date.” So he set his own date, last Saturday. Much more effective that way. We were so nervous about it though. So many prayers trying to figure out if we should continue with the baptism or not. In the end, we felt ok about it. The baptism was awesome and he was way happy. Then yesterday we visited them, for the first time after his baptism, and there is a new spirit about him and especially a new spirit in their house. It’s almost tangible the difference we felt.  I wish I could adequately describe it. We followed up with him on how he felt after his confirmation and he said, “It was like my mind was opened.” So I asked him what he meant by that, and he said, as soon as they gave him the blessing, he all of a sudden he felt so much lighter and he could remember everything we taught to him. He said it was like it just clicked, like everything made so much more sense now. As my little 8 year old self, I don’t remember much about what it felt like. Pretty much don’t remember anything. The water was cold. That’s about all I got. But it was so cool to hear the power there is in the gift of the Holy Ghost. It’s real. You can feel the difference, even just as a bystander in their house. He’s so excited about the priesthood and excited to start preparing to bless the sacrament and go to the temple. And of course, we’re excited too :)

 

Also, can you even believe it, but it’s almost Mother’s Day. Yeah, I still feel like I just got into the MTC. But for calls, what will work best for you? I know you have farewell’s coming up, but I’m no sure when. I can call anytime here on Sunday and up til noon on Monday, whatever that makes it for you over there. The phone number is different from last time, so I’ll figure out what it is and send it in next week’s email. I’m thinking maybe the easiest is just what we did last time. Monday morning here, so like afternoon for you there. Is that right? Anyhow, let me know. So excited to hear you all over there! :)