Feb. 21, 2011

Hey!
Wow this week was so amazing!!! So I don´t remember if I mentioned this last week, but we got a new rule in the mission saying that if we are teaching kids under 15, they have to go to church 4 times before they can be baptized. So we had been teaching this boy, Davi, and he´s 14 years old and the first time he went to church he wanted to be baptized right then. He is seriously golden! He does everything and understands everything so well! He´s always on the edge of his seat when we teach him. Anyways, so I called our mission pres. to see if we could get permission to baptize him the next week. Pres said to wait because we could probably work more with the family as well and they could get baptized together. So that´s what we did this past week. We´ve been teaching them and they are all so golden!!!!!! last monday night we went there and we had the whole family there: Mauro, Sonya, Rafaela, Davi, Dalice, and Diana. At the end we made a prayer chart with all their names on it and then one that said ´family´ and had 3 points at the bottom for what they should pray about. We also gave them stickers for each day when they said their prayers. We went back the next day and everyone had done it! Minus the dad, he´s a little harder to work with because he feels like he´s not worthy enough to pray or to go to church. He´s a really good guy though! The only thing is is that they aren´t married. We went there yesterday though and only sonya was home. We visited with her and talked to her to see if they have talked about getting married and what not. THey have and they would really like to. They´ve been together for 16 years! So we´re going to help them with that and go to city hall and get that all lined up. This will be my 3rd wedding :) They won´t be able to be baptized til next transfer though, because they need to get married first.Oh man and then yesterday was crazy! We had our baptism all lined up yesterday for Rafaela, a girl that we have been teaching. We get to church and we´re in sacrament meeting and we realized no one had filled the font up and we were having the baptism right after church. So afterwards we go to turn the water on and brown water starts coming out and had baby frogs in there as well. Come to find out the water boxes to the church had dried up and the building didn´t have water. So we were trying to figure out what we could do. No one knew anyone with a pool, there is a river right next to the city, but one of the members said it´s too dangerous to go because it´s been raining a lot here and the current is really fast. Then we thought about doing it in the OCEAN!!!!! We loved that idea :) It would have been my first baptism at the ocean :) the only thing is no one had a car. We could have gotten a bus and gone there, but the branch president said to wait and do it later in the afternoon and hopefully they would get something figured out. So then we go back at 4:00 and it still didn´t have water. Then one of the members gets there and does something outside behind the church and the water was working. So it all turned out good and we had our baptism. Afterwards I asked Rafaela how she liked the baptism and how she was feeling and she said, "I feel like I gave my heart to God" It was so precious!!! I love that girl! And she loves to pray! Everytime we went there to teach her she always wanted to pray. She would say the opening and the closing! Then one day we were at her aunts house teaching and rafaela came in at the end and she wanted to pray again (and this is just after leaving rafaela´s house). She is such a little cutie!
Well, that´s crazy to hear that the stakes are already split. And Kelsey could be getting married soon?!?!? And I won´t even be there for it :( Have you guys figured out anything else about you guys coming down, have you found tickets and how we would get around when you got here or what? Just wondering. Hey has baseball started yet? Are chandler and garrett playing this year?? speaking of baseball i just got the craving to eat sunflower seeds....anyways chandler and garrett you have to play, end of story.
Alright, I have to get going, but I hope you all have a good week. I love you guys and hope all is well :)
Love, Sister Salisbury