Dear family,
The work is
going along great right now. I am so excited to be a missionary.
Well, we had
our last changes this weekend and I AM STAYING IN INSURGENTES!!!! I was
so excited to be able to stay here with Elder Egan. We are working great
and since we joined our ¨two¨ areas with the other Elders we have had a
momentum that is contagious. I have been trying to upload the photos but
we had 2 other baptisms this week. One was Xochitl who is a woman who we
have been teaching for about 6 weeks who was baptized this Saturday in the
afternoon. Xochitl is great. Xochitl was a great baptism like the
others that we have had but I would like to comment about the other baptism of
a young woman named Fani. It was a huge miracle.
Fani has
been going to church in Taxco
with her boyfriend for the past 4 months.
Something
happened there and she stopped going. When Elder Egan was with Elder
Galeana, they were walking in a dirt road when all of the sudden a kid ran up
to them with water. He said that the lady from the store gifted it to
them. Elder Egan and Elder Galeana went to greet her. She said her name
was Fani and had been listening to the missionaries. Well, a week or two
passed and we didn´t have contact with her. In the afternoon we were
waiting to start Xochitl´s baptism and Elder Egan went into the secretary´s
office to invite Fani to the baptism. She showed up when we were
finishing up everything. We asked her to stay a bit so we could talk.
While I was getting everything picked up my companion presented her to
the members who were present in Xochitl´s baptism. After, we grabbed our ward
mission leader and we started to talk to her. We asked her about her
story and how she came in contact with the church.
Remember
that this was the first time that I had had contact with her. I asked her
what she remembered of the missionary lessons. She taught us all of them
from memory. I stopped and asked her, ¨Why are you not baptized?¨
She said for something that happened with her boyfriend. But she
then told us that she had a vision where Christ told her directly that she
needed to be baptized and preach the Gospel. We were wigging out :)
Within ourselves we were jumping and screaming, ¨this is awesome!¨ We
invited her to be baptized and she accepted right away. We told her that
she could be baptized the following Saturday. She said that she couldn´t.
Friday? No, she said that it would have to be for the following,
the 23 of June. We sat back listening to her and we sighed. My
companion thought out loud and said, ¨the truth is, if you want to, you could
be baptized today.¨ This was at 6:15 pm Saturday. She stopped a
second and said, ¨I could be baptized today?!? I want to be baptized
today. I don´t want to wait any longer. It will just have to be
before 7, I have to be home at that time.¨
My companion
sprung up and started calling the Zone leaders so that they could come to
interview her and calling all the people who had just left Xochitl´s baptism to
come back for another baptism. They were just like, ¨What!?! Another baptism? Who?¨ We told
them to just come and that we would explain the rest later. While my
companion was calling everyone, I did a pre interview to see how she was for
her baptism. She was super ready. The bishop and the relief society
president just looked at us with the look of, ¨the both of you are nuts!¨
The Zone leaders showed, interviewed her, and at 6:45 I was suited up in
the wet jumpsuit that Elder Egan had used to baptize Xochitl but for Fani´s
baptism. When we were in the font, I had to ask Elder Egan what was her
name. And that´s how it went. Within less than 60 minutes I had known,
pre interviewed and baptized Fani. The greatest story of an Unich that I
have every heard. And clearly one of the greatest missionary experiences
ever!
So that was
our week. Brandon, Xochitl, and Fani were confirmed this Sunday and we
got a bunch of people to teach and baptize in these next 6 weeks. We got
work to do!!!
Well family,
take care. I love you so much. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the
greatest treasure that I have. And I am so grateful to be able to gift it
to all those who I come in contact with. Try it. God will
strengthen you and you will feel of His Spirit. It is my prayer in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love,
Elder
Russell
