"I'm gonna get baptized because it makes Jesus happy"

September 19, 2011

Hey Fam!!!!!

Man, what the heck is goin on over there...Connor is goin on a mission, Collin is driving and likes girls and stuff, Aubrey cooks and sews, and Ava goes to school for 7 hours a day?! Nuts. I guess things do change quite a bit in a year. Duuude that’s so awesome that Connor put his papers in!!! I can’t tell you my guess of where he’s goin yet, but give me some time to think about it.

So, I was just told a little while ago that I have changes on Wednesday. Kinda weird considering that I’m used to being in an area for about 7 and a half months, haha. I have mixed feelings about leaving. I think I really will miss this area, not because we baptized a bunch of people but because I feel like I really converted myself here. Never in my life had I been so humbled and had to trust in the Lord as much as I had to here in San Marcos. The cool thing is that we ended up baptizing four people this Saturday: Margarita and her daughter Celinda and also Xiomara (15) and Geral (10). It’s pretty amazing how the Lord just put them in our path because as of about 2 weeks ago they didn’t have any plans of getting baptized. It was a sweet day especially because our zone and the Zona Jinotepe had a baptism together in the stake center. 8 of the 9 companionships had baptisms and it was so cool to see the smile on all of their faces.

That was a good end to a week that has been NUTS!  This week we had independence day for Central America and basically everyone and their dog comes out in the street to watch every one of the school bands perform...it was pretty legit. I spent the night in three different areas because everyone had baptismal interviews that they needed to be done. I’m super glad that Guatemalans are really small. I was with Elder Coyoy and we didn’t know we’d be spending the night, so we didn’t have keys. We had to take the glass out of their super tiny bathroom window and somehow he got in. I had another interesting experience with a little 9 yr old girl that I interviewed this week. She said that she was really nervous about getting baptized but towards the end she exclaimed happily, “I’m gonna get baptized because it makes Jesus happy!” She also tried to tell me that with tithing we should pay more than 1 cordoba if we have 10. She said that “we should probably pay like 5, cuz Jesus gives us everything.” Imagine if everyone had that attitude...

Anyways, I can’t begin to tell you about all the awesome experiences I had this week but one thing I’ve thought about a lot this week is the law of consecration. Anyone can go sit in the chapel for a couple of hours on Sunday, lots of people can get up and give a nicely worded testimony, almost any 19-26 yr old person can go serve a mission, but those that will have a spot in the kingdom of our Father are those that give everything to the Lord. By the way dad, loved those scriptures...I happened to read Ether 12 this week.

Anyways...that’s all I got for right now. I’ll be sure to write you guys and let you know how the new area is and everything. I love you guys a bunch and be happy!

Love,

Elder Ward