Week 39: Why Baptism?

 ¡Hola todos! I hope you're doing well. This week had its ups and downs but overall we had some successes!


On Tuesday I convinced my companion to go up with me to a part of the area I haven't been to. It's the part on the mountain, up a bunch of steep hills. Elder Cabrera never wanted to go up there because it was "dangerous." I think it's just because he didn't want to walk up the hill. Even though I was senior comp we didn't go up, but this time we did it. Peligroso mi poto. We joined a funeral procession to walk up since our apartment is right next to the cemetery and there was no way to get around it. I even started singíng the song they were singing. Maybe we should put a flyer about the plan of salvation next to the gate.  We eventually escaped the procession and made our way to the top. It was cool to finally see the city from the top of my area and to visit a part and people I hadn't seen yet. It's a lot poorer but so cool. We'll be going up more now since I have a comp who's willing. (And one who won't collapse after walking up a hill for 10 minutes). After we went to visit Keyla. She and her son Paullo are very receptive to the gospel. She told us that Paullo got mad at her during the week because she didn't want to wait for him to read the Book of Mormon together.. Paullo wasn't there, but we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to Keyla and extended the invitation to be baptized. She has a desire to be baptized and wants to do it before one of us gets transferred, but we didn't put a date down because she told us she didn't feel like she was ready. We weren't able to see either of them at church on Sunday because something came up for her where she had to leave town. But we have hope for this week and I know with your prayers a miracle can happen!

On Wednesday we went to have our district council of which everyone was late by 30 min except us, including an AP on exchanges with our ZL. This didn't work for us because we had a lesson at 12 and were relying on starting exactly on time. Elder Gerber shared a document with us about why and how we should teach baptism and that it really is a big part of what we do, so we should put people on date and have the rest be as a support for their desire to be baptized. We had to leave early, but we took the message from the document with us and put our friend Xiomara on date! She's 19 years old and this was our second lesson with her. She wanted to learn about repentance and forgiveness so naturally it led into baptism. I extended the invitation and she accepted! The date is for the middle of November, but we hope to strengthen her testimony in the gospel and move that date up a bit. Later in the week we taught her the restoration. She had some reservations, but ultimately expressed her desire to know if it was true. She told us that we know it's true and already have a testimony and that she'll try to have the same. We didn't get her at church on Sunday because she was travelling, but she could use your prayers to understand the restoration, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith and to help her realize that these things lead to and are part of her ultimate goal to be baptized. I just thought it was cool that we took that mensaje from the council and not even 30 minutes later put someone on date. The spirit is real!

We went on exchanges with the ZLs this week and this time Elder Siggard came over to Pueblo Libre with me. It's always fun to have an American comp when both can converse in the language decently well. He was feeling a little sick but pushed through and we didn't walk up too many hills. We talked a lot about how much weight we're gaining and how good Casinos are. (It's a cookie down here.) We met with a bunch of inactives and had a noche hogar with a family that are new converts.

On Friday we went looking for the houses of the young women in the ward, since we're teaching Maylin. Didn't end up finding any because the maps and directions didn't seem to match. But we later went to Maylin with the intent to put her on date too. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and she accepted the invitation! She's only 17 so she needs approval from her parents. Unfortunately we weren't able to ask them ourselves and still haven't received a response other than that she wasn't able to come to church on Sunday because her father asked her to help him with something. We have another lesson with her tonight so we'll see how it goes. We also had a noche hogar with the familia Zapata. They have 2 young adult daughters, who we wanted to talk with so when Xiomara eventually comes to church we can have them help her. We also realized that we know pretty much none of the young adults in the ward so we asked for some names to visit next week. They're willing to help out and it shows how important it is to work with members! We were also fed some bread that reminded me of zupfa.

As I've explained above, the majority of our investigators didn't come to church. It's been a problem for a while because we have lots of investigators who are progressing but it seems impossible to get them to come to church. But we did see hermana Milagros come and hermano Dante came as well. It's so hard to get a lesson with him during the week or even to have him answer the phone because he's a single father with 2 daughters and works a lot, but he's come to church 6 times, so he's obviously feeling something. Last week I made the goal to extend the invitation to be baptized to him the next time I see him, and that's exactly what I did. After church we walked with him to his home and he accepted baptism! Now we just need to teach him everything, which I have a feeling will be really hard because of how little time he has. Later that day we went knocking on doors of inactives with hermano Nilton, an RM who served in the Trujillo North mission but later moved here. He's really cool and even joined us for our lesson with hermano Walter. His testimony was powerful and I'm glad he's willing to help us out! We had another noche hogar with hermana Elva where we were fed pork, which I loved. I also got to see how much the bunnies have grown. They're huge now!

Today I was able to practice the piano for a bit at the chapel but not much else because there's not much stuff to do here for pday.

I explained the document about baptism a little bit above, but I'd like to do a little more here. It explained how our ultimate goal is to convert people to the gospel and have them baptized. Yes it is totally fine to teach someone all the lessons before extending the invitation, but we should get them to really want to be baptized. If they can have that desire, all other things, including the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, the church, etc., will function as supports to push them along to baptism. They will come to view them as things they can learn to better prepare them for baptism or make their baptism more meaningful, instead of learning about parts of the gospel with some mystery goal in mind. Because really, the question is do you want Jesus Christ and the holy spirit to actually be in your life or just the idea of them? Baptism brings all the blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ into our lives. It cleans us from our sins and we can feel His love for us. And who wouldn't want that? It comes through baptism. All these other things will help you get there, but you know you want to be baptized. This document helped me be more bold this week, and I'm going to continue through this week! I know you can do the same!

But that was my week! We're hoping to put more of our friends on date this week, and I know your prayers will help! Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

1. Us with hermano Juan, an inactive who at first I confused for our ward mission leader. They look strikingly similar.
2/3. The top of our area
4. Exchanges with Elder Siggard
5. Weekly bunny picture







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