MAURICIO SE BAUTIZÓ!!!!!

This week we aren`t doing anything special for Thanksgiving. I think we`ll buy a pie or something. But next week for district meeting our zone is going to have a Thanksgiving lunch.. with turkey and all ;) And for Christmas-we`re listening to Christmas music now!!- The mission is going to have an activity on the 15th I think .

Okay…guess what???? MAURICIO SE BAUTIZÓ!!!!! Wow, it was incredible his bautismo. It was very special for him too. It was even better than I expected because Hna. Flake was able to be in attendance (the assistants are usually really strict with letting people go back to areas for baptisms… so it was awesome!!!) Mauricio became very emotional during the program and even cried a whole lot…but was crying because he was so moved. It was very beautiful to see him baptized. His mom and sister (who usually don`t care much for what is the church) came to the baptism and they were also moved to tears. They were also able to come to his confirmation the following day.

I want to tell ya`ll a story about this other kid named Matias (he`s in the picture with Maurico coming out of the font).

This week we were walking along the street (walking in the complete opposite direction of the church) when we see Mauricio headed toward us in the opposite direction. When we stopped to ask him what he was up to. The conversation went something like this…

Hey!, where`re you headed?
To the church!
Oh, okay, why are you headed there?
We have an appointment
With who? (we thought it was with a leader in the church or something)
With my friend Matias (That`s weird we thought…who`s Matias?), Oh…with who, Hno Raymon?
No, with you guys
With us? We don`t have an appointment today.
No, but My friend Matias wants to learn about the church too, so I told him to meet us in the church at 6, so he should be waiting so let`s go.
But we`re not even headed to the church, how did you know you would find us there?
I don`t know, I just knew we`d find you, that`s all.

And so he did. He found us. He had the faith that he would run into us somehow at church. Do you know how big San Fernando is!??!! The odds of us running into him are very slim… but look what his faith did. Wow! So we started to teach his friend Matias (he`s 12 years old) and he is totally set on getting baptized!! He is so adorable and has many desires to learn. We compromited him to read and pray about it and he did and said that when he prayed and asked if Joseph smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true, he felt peace and joy… woo whoo!! Mauricio practically taught the entire lesson to Matias.

Even on the day of his baptism, we met up with Mauro because he was going to accompany us in an appointment with Matias and he came wearing his shirt and tie and carried around a briefcase bag with all his church books in it. As we taught this lesson to Matias we listened to Mauricio share his simple but powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and the trufulness of his gospel. I felt so happy. I felt so overwhelemed with joy. I truly can`t describe the joy I have felt here in the mission. I feel so blessed.

Welp, tengo mucho mas, pero el fin del tiempo se acerca…les quiero, les AMO mucho mucho, y siempre les tengo presente en mis pensamientos y mis oracions… Que tenga una buena semana!!!

CHAO!!!