Hey there family!
So wow...this week has been sweet. Seriously. The time is passing so quickly. But it is just so awesome being a missionary.
On Friday, we had a little zone activity and went to eat at Pizza Hut. It was fun, and we got the pizza people to sing to Elder Nuñez. Remember that this is like a 4.5 star restaurant here, so it was pretty sweet. At the end of the feast, we committed all the missionaries to find a new family. And we found 4 in the zone. In my area, we found a family that was pretty sweet. Actually, Elder Rodriguez has been wanting to contact that house for a long time. We pass by it every day. He said he had dreamed of that house before his mission, and that he wanted to contact it. It was way cool because when we contacted them, they let us right in and gave us a whole bunch of bananas. Oh, also they're really positive.
Saturday, we prepared a baptism. But this was a very special baptism. It was a re-baptism. This guy's name is M P. He got baptized many years ago. All of his kids are members and are active in the church, but about 30 years ago, he did something stupid and got excommunicated. Ever since that day, he's been trying to change and repent for his sins. Finally, 30 years later, he was able to get baptized. He doesn't really walk any more, and he can't really take care of himself, but his baptism was such a cool experience. His son baptized him, and after, he gave a testimony. He started out saying that he was grateful for the people who were present, then said, "but I want to tell you guys that this is the HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE (día mas dichosos de mi vida) because I am clean from my sins. I feel free. And I have never been happier." He basically yelled that, and started banging his walker against the ground, crying. He went on and continued talking for a while, but it was so powerful. At the end, as I was directing the last hymn, the baptismal font finished draining the water. As it made those loud draining noises, Brother M started waving to the disappearing water, crying, waving goodbye to those sins that he had carried with him for so much time. It was so cool.
But that wasn't the last thing that happened on Saturday. This next story is going to FREAK you out. We had a freaking Tarantula in our house. And it was freaking big! We walked in at night and it was crawling around the patio. So we (as in my companion) chased it around until we killed it. Man, that thing ran fast. Then we threw it outside. I didn't sleep very well that night.
Sunday, we had another baptism, Hermano R. That guy's just a stud. His wife was baptized a long time ago, and so he completed a family. He has dos (2) daughters who aren't baptized yet, they're a little harder. But he's getting baptized to be an example for his family. He really wants the best for them. He reads the BOM every day, even though he works in San Salvador. He's just sweet. So on Sunday in the morning he got baptized, and confirmed right after in Sacrament meeting. It was a cool baptism. My companion told me that while they were changing in the bathroom after the baptism, R was celebrating by doing a little dance, saying, "Yeah, yeah I've been born again." Yeah...he's a stud.
Sunday we also had a stake correlation meeting with President Cordon, the stake president, and all the bishops and mission leaders in the stake. It was really cool to be able to be there with all those great leaders. President is a genius. He also presented them the convert packets...something I started when I was in the office. I was kind of proud about that because I got everything going on that project.
On Monday, we had a sweet Family Home Evening with the Familia F. They are a sweet family that got baptized like 5 months ago. I went with Elder Alvarado 5 months ago to put that date with them... way cool. They live right next to the stake president and his family, so they invited them too. Then we brought the family of R (the daughters still aren't members). It was so much fun. A way cool FHE. The investigators started opening up a lot. Hermana G (R's wife) told us that her mom (who isn't a member) asked R why he got baptized. He told her that he got baptized because out of all of the churches, there is not one church that puts more emphasis on the family than ours, and that's how he came to know that this is true. SWEEEEEET.
Tuesday we had a multi-zone with President again. We got to have a special number. Sounded good, considering that no one could sing. We also saw a pretty cool video fromlds.org. It's called Stay Within the Lines. I recommend it. Go see it.
Wednesday we had our meetings, we taught about planning in zone meeting. We're getting a lot better at teaching in these meetings.
Yesterday we had to pick up Elder Feliz. He's from Dominican Republic. He's going to finish his mission in 2 weeks, but apparently something happened in his area, so President took him out of there and put him with us for a couple days. So we do a lot of divisions.
One cool experience yesterday was this:
We contacted a guy who raises pigeons and then sells them. We started the lesson, the other missionaries started talking about L1...the Restoration. When it got to my turn, we all had our scriptures open to Efesios 2:20 ready to learn about the organization of the church of Christ, when I decided to ask him a question. I don't really remember what it was, but it opened him up completely. Turns out he's had a lot of deaths in his family, and we asked him if he'd ever wondered where we go after this life. Then he said: "That's one of two questions I have always wanted to know. Where we came from and where are we going after death. Haha. L2. Just for one inspired question. It was funny because we all closed our Bibles at the exact same time, and started talking about L2.
I also got to go to Piramidal at the end of the day to talk to some of their investigators. We found a really cool investigator. Very, very smart. It was another cool lesson.
I feel like I've improved a ton in my teaching quality. We've been having so many powerful lessons. I've definitely learned a lot. I love my mission. The zone is doing well. The mission is awesome.
Take care,
Elder Bailey
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