Week 93: Step to Eternity

 Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well!

After pday on Tuesday all of our lessons sadly fell through. Once again, our lesson with Verónica and Kike fell. But we still had a lesson with hermana Isabel and her family. We're trying to help them have the desire and understand rhe importance of marriage, so we listened to Elder Godoy's talk from the last conference so they can understand that their decisions really fo and will affect their posterity. We sent them Elder Christofferson's talk to listen to in their own time and then we're going to hit them with Elder Oak's talk top it off!

On Wednesday we had district council that went a little long but we got cheetos and Inca Kola for our good work. After that we started an exchange with Buenos Aires 2, Elder Ochoa and Elder Hadfield. I brought Elder Hadfield with me to Chan Chan. He was relieved to be speaking in English with me. After lunch we visited hermano Johan, a man we had street contacted on Monday. He had told me he was a socialist, so I knew we were going to be talking about politics in this lesson. We ended up talking about the Church's stance on gay marriage, homosexuality, transgender stuff, poverty, etc. I answered his questions pretty well. We finished the lesson well with a very spiritual moment where we all felt the Hoky Ghost. I shared with him Mosiah 18:21-29, which talks about the Church of Christ and what it should really look like. I hope he can progress. We met with hermano James that afternoon and talked about baptism. He still wants to receive a spiritual confirmation that this is the correct Church, but he did say that if he receives an answer before the 18th of November he'll be baptized that day! He has a lot of faith and keeps his commitments so I know he'll get his answer. His dad, who's a member, also joined us for the lesson. That night we met with hermano Jose and talked to him about repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Then we went to hermano Jhonatan, Kiar, y Estefano to teach them about temples, go over the baptismal interview questions, and fill out their forms. They were all pretty nervous for the interview so I had to explain a few times that it isn't a test. They all passed it well and looked just so excited about their baptism. This is what real joy feels like. That night we had pizza for dinner, which helped Elder Hadfield a lot.

On Thursday we finished the exchange and had fun with the Buenos Aires companionships. After lunch we did weekly planning and visited hermana Mirian. This was our first lesson with her after setting her baptismal date. We talked about trials and she seems pretty strong. Her son is a little crazy and honestly looked drunk and he kept trying to get my attention during the lesson. It was pretty annoying and a little scary, but it all went well. We tried doing some finding but without much luck. That night we taught hermano Jose about the spirit world, the resurrection, and the three kingdoms of glory.

On Friday the mission water guy came to give us 18 small barrels of water to deliver to the rest of the areas in our zone. We had a bit of confusión with those as to where to put them, but we figured it out. We had our small meeting with the APs which made me feel a bit better. As a zone we aren't finding as many people as we would like, but we are baptizing every week, and that's more important. After that we went to Vist Alegre to start an exchange. I stayed in Chan Chan and brought Elder Bardales with me. He's a very diligent Elder and I was very impressed with what he's doing. I think I kind of jinxed us though because when we started the exchange I gave them encouragement to keep moving forward amidst trials, and then every single one of our lessons fell. We ended up trying to do some finding through the ward member list and talking with people in the street with no luck. Eventually we had to go to hermana Jovana's house so we could have the baptismal interviene of Jhonatan, Kiara, and Estefano. Elder Keller and Elder Williams arrived to give the interviews. I had also asked them to bring all their baptismal clothes so we could see if they'd work. While Elder Keller interviewed them one by one we made sure the baptismal clothing fit and then watched videos from the Book of Mormón. Hermana Jovana gave us some crackers and soda while we waited. At the end they all passed! All 3 of them wanted me to baptize them. I felt a little awkward, but without Elder Agostinelli here they do have a bit more trust in me.

On Saturday we finished the exchange and then went to pick up the keys to the chapel. We cleaned up the font and the bathrooms while we listened to conference talks. After lunch we quickly ran over to have a quick lesson with hermana Magaly. We then raced over to the chapel to finish preparing for the baptism. We filled up the font a little more as everyone slowly showed up. I wrote their names in más o menos bubble letters on the whiteboard. Hermana Kiar kept telling me she was a little nervous but she looked the most excited out of all of them. We got all changed and took some photos. They were pretty bad because the light wasn't on and no one bothered to move the door mat and the chairs, so I hoped that we'd be able to take some more. We started the program and Hermana Zamora and her daughter sang a special musical number. To my relief hermano Abraham said we were going to take more photos. Those ones were much better. I thought I was going to be baptizing them in age order but hermana Kiara wanted to go first. I had to do her twice because her foot came out of the water. Even though the water was a little cold she said she felt very warm inside. Hermano Estefano went next and as we were getting in the water I could tell he was getting a little scared. He told me he didn't think he could do it but I kept telling him that I was right there and that he wasn't going to slip. He held on to me pretty tightly but did it perfectly. Hermano Jhonatan went last. I was a little worried because he's the biggest of them all but the water had gone down a bit after the first two. I was able to push him down far enough and it went well. We all got a photo of us wet afterward and we got changed. I had to change in the chair storage room because there wasn't any space in the bathrooms. They all thanked me afterwards, especially hermana Patricia. We finished the program and we stayed and cleaned up afterward. It feels so good to know that I'm taking part in the Lord's work and I give all my thanks to Him for letting me see this miracle happen before my eyes. The Lord did everything here and prepared their hearts so they could return to Him. I know the Lord has a great futuro in store for them and their going to be fantastic missionaries! This is one step to an eternal family. Soon we'll help their dad to become active again so they can be sealed togrther for eternity. After the baptism we filmed a quick 10 second happy birthday video for Hermana Hiatt, who's birthday was on Sunday. 

Sunday morning was disappointing since our taxi guy didn't think we meant what we said and didn't go to the right place to pick us up -_- Because of that we arrived a little late and didn't get to see the confirmations of Jhonatan, Kiara, y Estefano.  But we got to congratulate them after. Once again the majority of our friends didn't come, quite a few of them were sick. But we did see hermana Isabel come and hermana Mirian! She was probably the most important atrendance so we were happy. But every single one of our recent converts came! That's 8/8! That felt so good because I know the Lord has changed them. We presented hermana Mirian to hermana Mtily and hope to be able to invite members of the relief society to our lessons with her. We stayed afterward for the mission coordination meeting and then spent some time with the secretary getting the baptismal forma ready, but we ran into a problem. Hermana Patricia and hermano Frank, the parents of Jhonatan, Kiara, y Estefano, are both members but their records aren't in the ward. We tried doing some digging but we still couldn't find them in the other ward where we hoped they'd be, so we'll have to do a bit more digging another day so we can send in their baptismal forms. We had a good lunch of spaghetti and pork and then did some planning for our Monday new missionary training and we had a small comp study with Elder Narvaez and Elder Cárdenas over videocall. After that we visited hermana Gabriela, who's feeling a little sick. She's been busy recently as well. We talked about the process of receiving the remission of our sins through repentance, baptism, and the gift of holy ghost. She thinks the Church is good but we could tell the thought still hasn't crossed her mind that this is THE true Church. We taught a little bit about that and left her with the powerful invitation to keep that in mind while she reads in the BoM, prays, and comes to church. That noght we also visited hermana Rosmery and hermano Diego. We took a second explaining what the BoM is but it turned out well. We had the weekly devotional and we finished a good week!

For pday today we went again to the toy musuem to get into the halloween spirit.

That's all for me! We had a pretty good week. I know lots of trials will come in these last few weeks of my mission, but I know through Christ it will all be for my good. Have an absolutely fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1-4, 6. Bautismo de Jhonatan, Kiara, y Estefano!

5. Exchange with Elder Bardales

7. El museo del juguete