written: 10/18/2021
Week 42
What a great week! This week concluded the transfer and the entire week we were on the edge waiting for transfer news on Saturday Night. We told a lot of the members and they all said they'd start praying that we wouldn't leave because they can't imagine me and my companion leaving. We even had our abueli (our miracle) who said she wanted to talk directly with our mission president because she needed us to stay more time to help her and be with her. Well, Saturday rolled around and we received news that we are staying here in our sector!!!!! We called a bunch of members and they were screaming and super happy! They all said their prayers were answered and it was the best news. For me, this is awesome, to have a relationship with all of these members that they are so excited for us to be here for a minimum of 6 more weeks. Best ward ever!!!!
Yesterday was the baptism of Ortencia, who as I've mentioned before, is our abueli. A family in the ward basically adopted her as their grandma and we visited her so much, helped her with things in her house, and had the opportunity to gift her many things as well. This week a Book of Mormon with big letters arrived and we gave it to her and the smile and joy she had when she received it was so awesome! She told us she doesn't even care about TV anymore, when she is home and in her bedroom, she just wants to read the Book of Mormon. At the baptism yesterday, the font didn't want to fill, and we were on a time crunch, and the water was only at about thigh length, waist length for people that aren't giants haha, and we just had to move forward with the baptism. As we entered, we finally understood why both of us needed to be dressed in white to help in the baptism, because before we were confused on our roles and how we'd both baptize her. So we realized we needed to both help her submerge in the water that wasn't filled up all the way and it was definitely inspired that she insisted on both of us baptizing her. As we submerged her, we had to go super low and she let go of my hand and didn't plug her nose. As she came up from the water, she was coughing a ton and we were super worried we might've just killed our abueli, but then all good and she was perfectly OK!!! Afterwards, she told us as she entered the chapel she felt like she had a bunch of things weighing her down and once she was baptized, it all went away. The faith that she has is CRAZY. She told us she is ready to help us find more people to be baptized and she is super direct and told us "all these people saying they don't want to be baptized for all their problems need to just forget about that and realize that being baptized is what will help them overcome their problems and follow God" She is an inspiration to me!!
With the baptism of the abueli, and especially the way we found her, just confirms to me that God's plan and timing is perfect! I'm super pumped for these next 6 weeks here and to keep working hard.
Love, Elder Collin Steele
pictures include: Teamwork makes the Dream work!; Me, Ortencia, Elder Vilcherres; Me, Elder Vilcherres, Elder Carrasco, and Elder Robinson; Hermana Finch, Hermana Cook, Elder Vilcherres, Elder Knell, Elder Carrasco, Elder Gonzales, Elder Robinson, and Me; and Happy Birthday, Elder Robinson
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