BAPTISM

Holy cow what a weekend! I literally feeel like my heart is going to explode with happiness and love for this gospel and this work! Carlos was baptized on Saturday and it went SO perfectly (except for one thing which I will wirte about in a second jaja). he was so so so excited and ready and the turn out was incredible. He invited several friends and his brother that lives 30 minutes north of here and they all came and none of them are members and they all loved it and ahh it was jsut so amazing. Actually, his brother is being taught by the hermanas up north, we are teaching one of his friends (more on him later bc he is amazing too! ) and another of his friend is being taught up norht as well and we just found out yesterday that they set a baptismal for the 12th. They are all from Cuba and living on the streets here in mardid. There is a youtube video that explains their whole story, it is really really neat and if I have time at the end of the email Ill tell you the name so you can watch it although only Wade and Reilly will be able to understand. Anyways, ok so we went by to talk with him saturday morning and he was just on cloud nine it was so wonderful to see. And then he arrived at the chapel at 4;30, the baptism wasnt until 6 but he was too excited to wait any longer! So we met him there and took tons of pics and ah man I cant even describe to you the spirit that was there. Just absolutely amazing. The talks were great, the baptism went perfectly, there were yummy refreshments and everyone stayed and chatted after with him and he was just in heaven, and so were we. Then he was confirmed yesterday adn recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost to complete the baptism. Wonderful. 

Ok, and one thing about Carlos, he reminds me EXACTLY of dad! Seriously! I have been thinking and thinking and thinking that there was something about him and was just so familiar and then the other day it hit me like a ton of bricks when he was helping us in our lesson with REinier that he is exactly dad. His personality, super strong testimony, and just his whole demeanor! When I realized this it made me incredible happy! 

HAHAH ok you are not even going to believe this.... so the only part of the baptism that didnt go so well was the "special musical number"...... can you guess who sung?????????  Mom, I can never ever laugh at you for singing at Lindsay¨s baptism ever again. So Hna Caballero has a really good vioce and likes to sing at the beginning of some of our lessons (sounds teribley strange but it invites the Spirit SO perfectly and actually our investigators love it and make us do it if we forget) So Hna Caballero has this song that her mom sung at her baptism and it is super pretty and she planned on singing it on Saturday. But last week she told me that I am going to sing it with her and obviously I said heck no but she insisted and then Carlos insisted as well. So, yes, Hna Caballero and I sung a duet at the baptism. JAJAJ. Seriously. oh my. terrible. Because here is the thing, Hna Caba has a super great voice but it is not super loud and strong which meant that you could totally hear mine. And the tune was some random one that her mom made up so it wasnt one that I was familiar with. Anyways, Im pretty my face was as red as you can get and what not while we were singing. Ah, so stinking embarrassing. 

Ok so on to Reinier and the miracles that happened this week with him. So he is 23 and lives with CArlos on the street (I want to take a picture of thier tent set up thing adn send it to you bc it is actually pretty legit. Anyways, he met with the missionaries in Malaga hace 2 anos or something like that but nothing came of it. Then he started seeing the changes in CArlos and asked if we would teach him! So we taught him the restauracion and he loved it and wanted to learn more. Well, Hna Caba had to do intercambios (still cant remember what they call them in englsih, quizas exchanges or splits or something) so I was left with our area and our investigators for a day. My comp was Hna Snelson who just came into the field this transfer. We were both kinda nervous about how the day wold go but it went so well. Seriously the whoel day was miracle after miralce. WE taught Reinier the PLan of Salvacion and he said he loved it and knew it was true. When we asked him what his purpose was in this life he said to follow Jesus Christ by keeping the commandments and being baptized. HA! Perfect! Carlos was in the lesson with us and was bearing his testimony the whole time (Ive said this before but really, there is nothing in this world like hearing your investigator bear their testimony! I was almost in tears several of times!) and helping us out when we were struggling with the langauge. And Calros kept referringt o "our church" when he talked, as if he was already baptized and what not. It made my heart happy! Anyways, Reinier came to the baptism and loved it! And this last week every time we went and taught Carlos REinier would make sure he was there to listen in and then we would come back later in the day and teach Reinier. Anyways, we plan on giving him a baptismal date tomorrow when we meet with him and we are way excited! 

And lastly Dani!!!!!! DANI HAS A FECHA!!!!!!! Oct 12 he is going to be baptized! AH, once again, by heart is just too happy to even begin to describe the last few lessons we have had with him! We fasted with him to help him stop smoking completely (he used to smoke at least a pack a day and now he has been doing so good but every few days he caves in a smokes 1 or 2). And last night we taught him once again the importance of baptism and we went throught the baptismal interview questions with him and decided on a date that we know he can be ready by! We are so excited! We know that through our faith in this fast and through his continued efforts and most importantly help from Christ he will be able to quit smoking. It is the only thing that is preventing him from being baptized. 

Ha ok so one more miracle. So when I was with hna snelson we has 10 minutes before we ahsd to go catch the metro to head to a lesson with Carlos so we decided that we would contact until then. We contacted this lady who said she wouldnt give us her number but that we could go to the bench across the street and share with her there. We were completely taken back because that just doesnt happen here and the fact that by this time we only had like 6 minutes before the metro would come that hna snelson and I kinda panicked and taught the msot CHAOTIC lesson ever. We both felt inspired to teach a 5 minute lesson about the restauracion so we did and let me tell you... chaos. We were literally all over the place. But at the end the lady, Isabel said, you know I feel complete peace and tranquilidad when I am with you. We about died. And she gave us her number. Just one more testimony that really the most important thing is the Spirit. 

There is actaully so much ore that i want to tell you about but this email is already super long and I am sure you dont want more rambling. Plus I am just about out of time. 

Oh but I cant forget this... so I got my hair cut last monday, Yeah, definitely not the best decision I have ever made. I dont know what I was thinking going to get my hair cut when my comp only speaks spanish, the people there only speak spanish, I dont speak spanish, and to top it off it was at a hair school. Haha yeah seriously what was I thinking?? Thankfully hair grows back. haha. I am laughing now about it but last Monday I definitely wasnt laughing. hah. The guy literally took probably 60 percent of my  hair, pulled it to the top off my head and just started chopping. When he started doing this I literally thought I was going to die. oh my. 

Ok thats it. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you! Thank you for your prayers, I feel them and I need them! 

Love, Hermana Heims