Elder Don DeFreese: B-to-the-a-to-the-u-tistrito!‏

April 16, 2012
Yes, that confusing subject line is a word.

A word that is ''Bautistrito'', I'll explain it later on in the email, but for now wallow in unknowing. Haha on to the events of the week...

So this week was good, we worked hard to knock doors and find new people and were rewarded with good and interesting experiences for sure.

For example, when we knocked one door and they let us in, we went to sit down and noticed a baby in a stroller that had really white skin, then when the baby turned toward us, we saw that she had blue eyes like mine as well! So we were like, ''this baby isn't from here...'' and when we got talking to the family, as it turns out one of the people there, was visiting from Germany, that she's married to a German and that's why the baby is white with blue eyes! Then she spoke some German at me (yes ''at'' me, because I don't understand any of it anymore =P) which sounded familiar but I couldn't understand or answer, so I just kinda laughed at my own lack of German skills these days.

Anyway though, we taught them and it was fun and interesting, we'll be seeing if they progress here soon as well.

Then I went on splits with Elder Eastmond and Elder Thomson came here with my companion, and the splits went well. We practiced talking with every person and ended up finding some pretty cool people. Including one that was sweeping outside who we talked to for a sec but she said she was working, so she couldn't talk much, so we left her basically with an invitation to church and wrote down her phone number, but then she asked for a pamphlet or something, so we pulled out one of the Restoration, and then she mentioned how she loooves to read, so we felt like all or nothing, you know? So we pulled out the Book of Mormon and explained it to her and left her with that as well.

Now Elder Thomson and Elder Eastmond tell me that she not only went to church by herself this weekend, but she already read, understood, and loved the first 11 chapters of the Book of Mormon. So yeah, that was a cool experience, and they'll be working with her now.

Then as we got near the end of the week, our investigator Perla was super set on her baptism for Sunday before church, and guess what? We show up on Saturday night after having invited EVERYONE to the baptism at 8 a.m., and Perla tells us that she won't be able to because she has to work. NO! We were really distraught (spelling?) for her, but we sat, thought, and followed the spirit, pulling out scriptures on faith, on ''choosing whom ye will serve'' (Josue 14), etc., and at the end of the hour long discussion she said with tears in her eyes, ''alright, I'll see you guys there at 8 tomorrow''. We didn't know how or what she was going to do, and actually still have no idea what she DID do, but she promised in that moment to make it there to be baptized and stay for the services after.

Well, she asked us if we could drop by to walk her there anyway, and we did just that on Sunday morning. Only that when we got there, her mom came out and looked at us in a worried way and said, ''she's not home, she left!'', we asked her if she'd gone to church and she said, ''no, she just ran out into the street!'' thinking that she'd gotten cold feet, I felt horrible and worried and everything at once, sick to the stomach for all the people that were going to show up to church an hour early just for us to be there without anything, and sick for Perla that she wouldn't be able to receive all the blessings that were waiting for her.

Then, when her mom saw my face go a little sour, she laughed a little, turned around and called into the house, ''Perla, they're here for you!'' and just started laughing. Then my companion and I let out some relieved laughs and told her it was a ''good one''. Haha but it really was pretty funny afterward.

But yeah, so we went to church with her, got things set up, and had a great baptism with 4 investigators and an inactive member there! Woohoo! So it went really well. Then in the services, I confirmed her. I hadn't ever done it in my mission, but there is a lack of priesthood in our ward, so they had me do it. It was really cool, because my companion got to baptize her and I got to confirm her. So yeah, great experience.

Now to explain bautistrito. That is two words put together, ''bautismo'' which is baptism, and ''distrito'', which is district. So I'm pretty sure you can guess what it means. It's what they call here when the whole district baptizes in a week. Elder Thomson and Elder Eastmond baptized as well. So yeah! Pretty good week in general.

Other than that I don't know if I have much more to say, but time is running out, so I'll just get back to you all next week. Sound good? Love you all so much!

Elder DeFreese