31: Refugio 10

Hello,

Wow, time’s flying.  Ya es una semana. [It’s already been a week.]  This weekend is the temple dedication.  Friday we have a big conference with all the missionaries in El Salvador and President Eyring and Elder Christofferson--two pretty important people.  Saturday we have the cultural event in San Salvador, with them and the youth here, then Sunday is the dedication (I will be in the stake center for that).  So it’s going to be a pretty sweet week.

So this week.

Monday, after writing, I went to Santa Ana to try out for the missionary choir to sing for President Eyring, but didn’t make it.  Let’s just say I can’t really read solfege much these days.  After that, we came back to Chalchuapa and had an activity as a zone.  We took a tour ride through Chalchuapa.  Yeah, that was pretty embarrassing, I’ll admit, but it was fun.  And the hermanas liked it.  Here’s a couple pictures of the city and the lagoon in Chalchuapa.  We are doing some sweet work in El Refugio--we’re changing an area that has the reputation of being horrible to awesome.  We’ve baptized almost every week, and keep finding really positive people.

Also, there are some pretty wicked storms going on.  We always find ourselves running through deep water, stuck in windy storms with lightning all around.  Yeah it’s awesome.  A couple days ago there was even a hurricane in Magdalena--knocked over a bunch of trees.  It’s pretty intense.  But at least it’s not hot when it rains.  I don’t like the heat.  Whenever it’s hot, it is so freakin’ hot.  Puya hay calor.

We’re also reactivating a lot of people.  The problem is that here in Refugio, the members are kind of lazy.  The majority only goes to church every other week, and they’re always late.  Yesterday I think we had about 15 people when we started sacrament meeting, then 49 after.  Everyone comes late.  I have no idea how they’re going to make it to the temple dedication.  We’ll see I guess.  We got one inactive, Rafael Sulín, and his daughter who’s not a member of the Church.  We’re going to baptize her.  They’re going to be powerful.
 

Wow, so the familia Herrera has been a hassle.  There are a lot of things going on.  Finally, Sunday, after months of trying to figure out what the problem was, we were talking to them, and then Irene had to go talk to her daughter, and Oscar told us in broken down English that the biggest problem was the money.  Because she had been married before, and her husband died, they had been getting 50 dollars every month in a pension.  Well, apparently they were planning for December when they were going to get a raise, but I told them I wouldn’t be there in December.  So we’re pushing for the last Saturday of this month.  If not, I don’t really know what we can do for them.

Okay, also, we had a baptism.  It was a miracle.  The last Sunday, the father of Daniel Marroquin, the branch president, told us that he wanted to get baptized this Saturday.  I was kind of surprised.  He has had so many problems with the laws and never really had a desire to be baptized, but I guess the temple changed that.  The temple has done miracles.  So on Saturday, he got to be baptized.  His family showed up about 30 minutes late (which is normal for them, haha).  I gave the first talk, on Jesus Christ, the atonement, and how that relates to baptism.  Then Angel, one of his sons, a return missionary who is way powerful, gave the second talk.  Then he started crying.  Then I looked at his family and they were all crying.  Then I looked at everyone else and they were all about to cry.  Man, I felt like I was going to need to mop the floor.  So then the president baptized his father, and wow, that was cool.  After the baptism they stood in the font and hugged for like a minute.  Latins are very touchy people, but it was actually pretty cool.  The spirit was so strong you could cut through it.  After, we usually sing hymns while we are waiting, but the spirit was so strong I had to wait.  It was like the temple.  I have not felt the spirit that strong in such a long time.  Then we sang, it was really cool, finished, it was sweet.

Really that was the coolest baptism I have ever seen in my life.  The dad is going to be such a powerful member.  After, we went to their house and had like a little testimony meeting thing in which he admitted that he had felt comfortable with his old way of life, but the temple changed things.  When people really understand our message...when they really understand that they can be sealed with their families forever, they really can’t say no.  It’s an awesome thing.  To be sealed forever.  It’s really real.
 
Well, I’m excited for this weekend.  This dedication is going to be so awesome.  I just feel really sad that the familia Herrera will not be able to be there.  Oh well.

So that’s all for now.