Hola!!!
So Linda and Andrea FINALLY got baptized!!!! YAAAAAAAY!!!!!! But of course it was completely ridiculous like all my baptisms. The bishop forgot to announce it so there weren´t very many people that came, then the guy that was supposed to baptize them ended up not being able to come so someone else had to do it and we almost had to fill up the font by ourselves because the ward mission leader turned off his phone all week (then he walked in right before we started the baptismal service and said, oh hermanas, you have a baptism today??? UGHHH!!! And then he didn´t even stay for it!!! Ridiculous.) Anyway, it was crazy. But they got baptized and confirmed and even stayed for all three hours of church, which it´s like pulling teeth to get any of our converts to do that. It was awesome, even though their Sunday School class acted like barbarians the whole time (Grandma, I understand you better now and I´m sorry. So sorry.) But it was good.
So now we´re ready for Jorge and Lourdes next week!!! More importantly, they are SO ready. We went to visit them this past week and they told us that for Mother´s Day they had gone to visit Lourdes´s parents and had gone to their church. They told us, we did NOT like it. THIS is the true church!!! We were like, YESSSSSS!!!!!! They are so excited for their baptism and Jorge brought his mom and sister to church and they both loved it, and now his mom wants to be baptized and we´re going to put a date on his sister when we can find her to teach her. We´re way excited. They´re not even baptized yet and they already are member missionaries!!!! NICE. Hermana Lourdes is pretty much our mamita on Tuesday now, and she seriously makes the best food ever. It is WAY good. It´s so amazing to see how the gospel has changed their lives. Lourdes quit drinking coffee in one day. They both accepted the tithing and fast offerings and are even excited about it. Hermano Jorge has really changed a lot. Funny story. One day we were there and he started telling us about his past life, which was a little babylonish. Jorge is VERY open and VERY direct, he´ll tell you straight up what he thinks and isn´t embarrassed about it. So he´s talking and all of a sudden he says, hermanas, I was a FORNICATOR!!!!! Do you know what that word means??? That means I was with LOTS of women!!!!! We were like . . . . . uhhh this is kind of awkward!!! Totally didn´t need to know that!!! So then he goes, but you know how I justified that?? I said, well Jesus said to love one another, so I love her, her, her, and her too!!! Well I about lost it then bc that was just too much, but we were just like, well hno, the important thing is that you´re not doing it anymore (which he isn´t, don´t worry). But all the rest of the day we would just randomly say to each other, I was a FORNICATOR!!!!! and laugh. Mom if you think that small children who don´t need to know what a fornicator is just yet are reading this, I guess you can take it out, but it´s so hilarious!!! So I hope you just leave it. Anyway, Jorge has repented of his sordid past and is now a devoted family man, ready to be baptized into the true church. Cheverisimo no??
Ohhh, and this is way cool too!!!! Remember Maria and Nayely?? Well we´ve been trying to get the missionaries over there pretty much forever, but all the elders were saying that it wasn´t in their sector so finally Hna. Foster got out the map of the mission and looked at it, then called the elders and said, you have GOT to go visit them ASAP. They kept asking when they were coming and we´ve taught them a lot of the lessons because they´re friends of the familia Mendez so they´re over there a lot when we come. Well the elders FINALLY found them, taught them the first lesson . . . . . and they´re getting BAPTIZED!!!! June 12!!!! We´re gonna get permission to go because even though we´re technically not their missionaries we´re still considering it our baptism because after all, we saved Nayely´s life!!! But isn´t that like the coolest thing EVER?? (Plus we´ll finally get to see Guasmo like we´ve been wanting too-NICE.)
We had a cool experience yesterday. We´ve been hurting on new investigators because we´ve been spending so much time with the people who are getting baptized, so yesterday we did some door knocking (or window creeping). We knocked on the door and this lady came to the window and when I saw her at first I was like, there´s no way she´ll let us in, because she was very made up and looked a little weirded out by the sight of us. But then we started talking to her and I thought, wouldn´t it be funny if she did let us in??? And you know what??? She did!!! And we taught her the first lesson and she was VERY receptive. It turns out she´s been having a lot of problems with her "husband" but they just had a baby so she´s hoping that that will help fix things (usually doesn´t work but now she has us to help them too!!). And she loved the idea of having a prophet to guide us in our families today. At the end she prayed and said, Heavenly Father, you knew that I needed to talk to someone and you sent the hermanas. We were like . . . . WHAAAAAT?! SWEET!! She really wants us to come back and talk to her "husband" too, and to go to church. Obviously the chastity lesson will come soon after plan of salvation but if she obtains a testimony there won´t be any problem with that!!!
Hmmmm, I don´t really know what else to say. Sorry I don´t have a lot of fun Ecuador stories. Next week will probably be better for those. Hope everyone is doing well and that you´re all being good and doing what you should be doing!!!!
MUCHO AMOR
Hermana Chamberlain
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