Well I am officially done with an entire cambio here. It's kind of weird to think that six weeks have already passed by here in Chile. It is kind of sad because my companion already left :( He is leaving to go be a zone leader up in the sketchy part of the mission that borders Santiago. Which also means I have a new companion! I'm way excited to start working with him here. His name is Elder Yergensen and is from Idaho. He seems like he is excited to work hard together, which is awesome.
The exciting news: WE HAD TWO BAPTISMS YESTERDAY!!!! Yay :) It was super surprising and stressful actually. First of all, a lady who was the mom of a member decided that she finally wanted to be baptized after investigating the church for around 30 years. All of a sudden, she just decided that this was where she needed to be. She said something like, I want to join your church- I talked with Jesus, and I know that he's in this Church. How simply and truly put that is. There really only is one church truly led by Jesus Christ- something that I've really come to know even more here. He really does lead and guide this church and this work. He has the power to work miracles in the lives of people through the message of the Gospel and the power of the priesthood. When she was drying off after getting baptized, she just threw her feeble hands up in the air and said, ¨I'm happy.¨ It really was neat to see the joy that really comes with the Gospel in our lives.
The more chaotic part of the day came with the other investigator, a young 9-year-old boy named Marcelo. We went over to his house before church and walked with him and his sister to church. The mom, who is a recent convert, said that she would come to the church shortly after she figured something out with her youngest children. However, by the end of all three hours of meetings, she still had not arrived at the meeting. We also were unable to get hold of her on the phone. After talking with the bishop, we decided that we would cancel his baptism if the mom wouldn't be there. It was really sad, especially for my companion who knew he was leaving the next day, because he had really gotten to know the family extremely well and had actually baptized the mom and sister a few months ago. After a lot of stress and confusion, the mom showed up after having to go the hospital for her grandpa or something like that, and Marcelo was baptized. It was really awesome. Afterwards, my companion confirmed him and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was really neat because he said afterwards that when we placed our hands upon his head, he felt the same warmth that he felt when he went in the water to be baptized. It was really neat to see the power of the Holy Ghost and to know of the blessings that it can bring in our lives.
I am really excited for this next change, because we should have the opportunity to teach and baptize a lot of people hopefully (we may even have a baptism this Sunday!) At least we will be working our hardest to help as many people as possible. I hope that all is great back at home, and I will talk to you a bit later.
Elder Stollenwerk
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