Ups and Downs

Hola!!!!!

It´s been a week of ups and downs. Ups first, obviously. Jorge baptized Erika last weekend and he was really nervous but everything went fine. She was confirmed on Sunday and now every member of the Fam. Criollo that can be baptized is. YAAAAY!!!! We went back to Catalina this week to see how she was doing, and she let us in, told us that she had been reading and praying and that she KNEW it was true. So we put another baptismal date on her for July 3rd!!!! YAAAAY!!!! And once she gets baptized, it´s only a matter of time before Ester and her mom get baptized too. She`s the one that has to do it first and then her whole family will follow. But she´s FINALLY going to get baptized after I don´t even know how many months of working with her. That´s going to be a sweet baptism for sure. We also went to Jacklin and Judi one day this week, we had set the appointment for 11 but for some reason she thought we were coming at 9. When we showed up she told us that Judi`s dad had been waiting all morning to sign the baptism permission slip and that he had left 5 minutes before we came. AHHH!!! But we were really excited because it means that he definitely is going to sign. The rule is that if the parents are living together, whether married or not, they have to have the permission of them both. If they don´t live together, the just need the mother`s permission I think. But yay!! He`s going to sign!!!! This is one battle that we don`t have to fight!!!

The downs now, but not too many. First of all, Yoconda came to church with us last Sunday, stayed all 3 hours and loved it, except at the end she said she was really hungry, haha. We met her mother in law and made another appointment to come and visit them both and she looked really excited to see us and have us come back and we were very happy. So that night I was thinking about her and how she was progressing, and all of a sudden this thought came into my mind, "If her boyfriend gets out of cocaine rehab early and comes back, that could really mess things up!!!" WHAT?? Random, but not too much because I had actually thought of it in passing a few days ago but didn`t think anything of it, just brushed it off like, oh that won`t happen, he`s got a whole year to go and he`s only been in there for a month. This was different, it was like I knew it was going to happen. I talked to the other hermanas in the house and they were all like no no, don`t think that!!! I didn`t want to, it just popped into my head!!!! But I tried to forget about it. The next day we went to visit the Criollo family and they told us that her boyfriend had left rehab that SAME DAY and came back. We were like . . . . . . WHAAATT?!?!?!?!?!?! I was absolutely dumbfounded. How did I know that was going to happen???? Hermana Foster said it was because I thought of it but I´m pretty sure it was the Spirit warning me of the obstacle that was about to pop up with her. I´ve had lightbulb moments like that before (remember when I firgured out why HNO Balarezo was the way he was???) but that was insane. The sad thing is that now we can`t find her. Everytime we knock on her door, she`s left with her boyfriend. HNA Lourdes said that they`re like a just married couple right now because they haven`t seen each other in so long. I was like, a month isn`t very long!!!! Long would have been if he`d stayed in rehab a whole year like he was supposed to!!!! But despite this, I´m trying not to get discouraged. I know that Yoconda will get baptized and maybe her boyfriend and mother in law will too and that`s why he got out of rehab now. This is just a temporary setback (although now that he`s out, she`s not living the law of chastity anymore. Dang. Oh well, now we know what the next lesson will be!!)

The other big down is that Eduardo decided to change his baptism date AGAIN and now he wants to be baptized the day after his birthday, July 8. I guess this isn`t a huge down, just frustrating because the longer he waits to get baptized the longer his family has to wait to get sealed all together, plus we have our change goal and we`re at 5 and we want 6 (yeah yeah, selfish I know). RIght now we`re focusing on strengthening his testimony-he says he prays and prays but doesn`t get an answer (although he told us he was going to share the gospel with his athiest friend and we were like that`s super but you know that means you think it´s true because how are you gonna share something with someone that you don`t think is true?? Duuuuhhhh.) I left him a really good article to read in the Liahona about it and the book of Enos to read too. Plus we`re visiting him pretty much every day and we`re gonna take him to a baptism tomorrow of a family. I think that will help him a lot. So right now he kind of has two dates-one for the 26th of June and one for the 8th of July. We`re shooting for next Saturday but who knows what will happen. I just know that we`ll get him there. Right??? Right!!!

Other stuff that`s been happening-we had lunch at President`s house today with all the other office staff. Hermana Johns wanted us to show a talent so we replayed the time we went to that chifa with the crazy chinese guy who told us that we couldn`t speak Spanish very well. They all thought it was super hilarious. We had hamburgers and hot dogs and banana splits-I kind of felt like I was at a 4th of July picnic de verdad. But it was super fun. Then we went to the mall to go grocery shopping and we were walking around the food court just to see what they have and all of a suddent HNA Foster goes, is that SUBWAY?!?!?!?! It was!!!! We were SOOOOO excited-neither of us have EVER seen Subway here!!! Immediately we decided that the next time we have to come to President`s house for something, we`re eating at Subway. I haven`t even eaten there in a year!!! That`s insane!!!!! Crazy how time flies, can you believe that in 4 days I´ll be halfway done with my mission??? I cannot even wrap my mind around that!!!!! It seems like I just got here!!!! My mission can`t be halfway over already!!!

Wow. Okay sorry that this is so short but now I´ve just blown my own mind with thinking about how fast the time has gone so I can`t think of anything else to say. So be good and love the Lord and keep the commandments!!!

MUCHO AMOR

Hermana Chamberlain