Hola Familia!
I had an amazing week with experience that I will NEVER forget for the rest of my life!! Elder Laguna and I are working harder than ever and loving the mission more than ever. After about two weeks of some tough trials we are starting to see tons of the fruits; enduring to the end with a positive attitude was not an easy task but man has it really paid off!!
To start off I thought I would relate to you about a surprise baptism that we had on Monday. We did our P-Day things and started working at 6pm. We had been conversing during the day that we must work even harder than we have been. At 6 we started passed by an appointment but they weren't there. We then decided that we would start doing some follow-up work and contact people that we met on the streets. We were walking with full diligence praying to be guided where the Lord would have us go. As we passed a particular apartment building out came running an investigator named Jose Luis. He is Catholic, has been studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses, goes to a Christian church, and has been receiving lessons from us. He called and invited us to come in for a moment. Silently surprised by the abrupt change of events we stepped into his house and he told that he was leaving that night at 10 to go to another state of Mexico called Colima. He then said something that almost forced me into a coma or something to that extent. He said, "So Hermanos, I want to go to Colima baptized and confirmed. Can I have my baptism tonight?"
After assuring him that of course we could do it that night, we ran to the bishop's house and got permission to go forward with the baptism. We then ran to the church to fill up the font and at this point we starting worrying that everything wasn`t going to work out. Right now we are attending at the Stake Center and the font is pretty large and it would take a good 3 hours or so to fill up. It was 7 and the baptism was planned for 8:30. Looking at the options of what we could do, rain like I have never seen before, began falling. I'm sure other people were worried about flooding problems but when I saw the rain falling so thick an idea came to my mind. We ran to the custodial closet and got out about 8 buckets and put them out in the rain to let the rain fill them up. Elder Laguna and I were running with buckets that we filling up super fast in the rain from outside to the font. In about an hour the font was filled to a level in which we could do the baptism.
The rain was such a blessing and definitely sent from God to enable us to carry out the baptism. I was so filled with gratitude as everything work out flawlessly. Then as the time came to go and get Jose Luis for the baptism and his family the rain almost completely went away!!
The other experience I had this week was in an interview for baptism. I have really been focusing this week on carrying out my responsibilities for the glory of God and not for my own. The person I was interviewing didn't want to be baptized. I started trying to convince him that he needed to do it. However, the thought came to me that when I leave this interview I don't want to think that the success was my own glory but that of God's. I then felt a clear impression that we were to kneel down and offer a prayer to God and that he would have the opportunity to ask God in a prayer if he should be baptized. We did just that and after he asked during the prayer if he should be baptized like Christ he paused. Everything was quiet for almost a minute when he finally said "Gracias Dios, Gracias." He finished the prayer and the Spirit was so strong. He pondered a bit and then I felt it was appropriate to ask what God's response was to his question. He then told me that he knew he needed to be baptized.
I will never forget this moment. I haven't felt the Spirit that strong in many other moments in my life. I will never forget the peace I saw in his eyes and face and his determination afterwards to do what he knew was right. I am loving the mission more than ever. I learned a powerful lesson: Endure to the end with a positive attitude and the Lord will take care of the rest, not for my glory but for the glory of my Divine Redeemer. I love you all tons and hope that you had a great week!
Con mucho cariño,
Elder Janis
