October 13, 2014

we had a baptism this week wooo! Gianina got baptized after facing a lot of opposition. so these past few weeks we've been getting ready for her baptism, but her husband, Lider, hasnt wanted to baptize her. we've been teaching a ton about the families and how the father is the patriarch of the family, but he just didnt want to baptize her (and sometimes she didnt want him to baptize her either). we had a ton of appointments with them this week but they all fell until friday. we went friday and asked how everything was and they said fine. i asked lider if he was gonna baptize her and he said no. i asked why and he said that they had fought the night before and that they were now separated and that now it was even less of a possibility that he would baptize her. so we asked gianina if she still wanted to be baptized, and she said yes. we asked her who she wanted to baptize her, and she said lider. we read a few scriptures in Proverbs and in 4th Nephi and left them with Alma 36 to read and ponder after we left. then we went again on saturday, and Lider's car was out front again (it hadnt been on friday) so that gave me a bit of hope, but they werent there. we talked to Gianinas dad and asked him to tell Lider to bring a white shirt and an extra shirt (we had pants) hoping that they were okay again. we had the font ready and we were in the chapel waiting before the baptism (which was supposed to start at 7) and the first people to get there was the branch president and his family. they said that they had hurried to get there cus they thought they were late and asked us where everybody was. our phone was dead and our charger doesnt work so we couldnt call lider and ask where they were so we just said that they would get there shortly. then sergio got there and then another investigator Jose. it was already a bit past 7 and gianina and lider werent there still. i went into the bathroom and prayed alone and felt that everything would be fine. then they got there a bit later and lider was in a white shirt and said he was gonna baptize her. the baptism went well and then afterwards lider gave his testimony, and said that they had passed some difficult times but they were able to overcome and had come out even stronger. it really reinforced in my mind that Satan does attack us in vital points in our lives, but that the wisdom of God truly is greater than the cunning of the devil, and that if we trust in Him we'll come out stronger.

we taught sergio and he came to the baptism but not to church. he said he'll start coming regularly when God gives him another job or makes possible that he can change his schedule in his current job.

Isaías is progressing well and is gonna get baptized on the 25th. we got to church a bit early so we decided to go around to get a few investigators that lived nearby. we went to get Isaías and nobody came out of his house. we left and went around the corner and saw him waiting outside the house of his member friend to go to church! it was pretty cool.

a few weeks ago, a young guy (José) that speaks english contacted us in the street. he said he wanted to know more about Joseph Smith but that we couldnt visit him in his house cus his family is really catholic. we gave him our number and he said he would call us to set an appointment to teach him in the chapel. he never called us and i thought he was just another one of those people that contacts us just to practice their english a bit. then this week we saw him again and set an appointment. turns out he's kind of atheist but we had a pretty great lesson and he does have a desire to believe. he came to the baptism on saturday but didnt end up waking up to come to church on sunday.

we also found a few other pretty great investigators just by contacting. we contacted an older guy sitting in the street and sat down with him and had a brief lesson on prophets. we left him with a pamphlet of lesson 1 and then left. on friday we went back and he had read the whole pamphlet. he asked us what we thought about people who get baptized multiple times. we read in Acts 19 where it talks about the 12 people that Paul rebaptized after realizing that their baptism probably hadn't been done by somebody who had authority and in Moroni 6 where it says that they should be sincere. he didnt really like that people get baptized two or three times. we gave him a book of Mormon and there was just a moment where he felt the Spirit really strong and thanked us for visiting him. we invited him to be baptized on the 1 of November and he replied '' if i only say sí, it would be very little. i'd like to be able to express myself better, but the only thing i can say is sí.'' it was pretty incredible to see how the Spirit changed his thoughts so much and helped him know that we have valid baptisms in the Church of Jesus Christ. he didnt end up coming to church but i wanted to share about that lesson cus it was great.

y ese no más. I know that Christ lives and that he is my and our Savior.

Elder Woodfield