What A Week

I have a lot to write and this keyboard is really stiff...this should be interesting.

HELLO!

What a week we had here in Iguala. Let me tell you about it.

On Tuesday we went to visit some investigators. We had just arrived and were talking with them when their neighbor came out...this old crusty man named Juan. We introduced ourselves as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We started to tell us that he respects us a lot because we are preaching the word of God. He respects all religions...EXCEPT the mormons because they don't talk about God. I laughed a little inside, smiled and said 'well, Sir, we are mormons. But the church is called the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints. He then started to tell us all that was wrong with our religion and was quite rude. He insulted my spanish and I didn't feel bad. He was like 'your accent isn't very good. You sound very gringa' I thanked him for his kind words. At least I could understand the insult! We let me talk for a little longer and then we started to teach the Restoration. It was actually really cool. He has all sorts of weird ideas of our church and all were resolved through the scirptures and the spirit. I really felt like I was teaching with 'power and authority'. At the end of the lesson, he had calmed down and his weird ideas about our church were resolved. Then he started talking about how pretty I am and how beautiful my eyes are so we left quickly after. But...I love the gospel because it is perfect. It really answers all your questions that you have. I love when investigators have questions or doubts because I am confident that their answers will be found in the Book of Mormon. I love being able to teach people about the restoration of the gospel because it MAKES SO MUCH SENSE. All of this makes sense.

This week was full of preparations for BAPTISMS!!!

Like I mentioned in last week...Romaldo returned! He's so great. He had his interview on Friday with the Zone Leader. We were waiting for them to finish but my companion really need to go to the bathroom and didn't want to use his because she REALLY had to go (if you know what I mean)..so we booked it over to the house of Adrian and Cristina Hernandez Roman and used their bathroom. Suddenly it started POURING RAIN and we only had 15 minutes to make it back to our house so they offered to give us a ride. They have a bug like us...and it doesn't have windshield wipers! So we took it slow and right before we made it to our house, the car died! So Hno. Adrian got out in the rain pushed his car to the side, got soaking wet but fixed the problem so we all got back into the car and made it home in time! haha. I love mexico and that family.

Saturday was the baptism of Romaldo...and it was the most stressful day ever. Let's start from the beginning. We had a correlation meeting in the morning with the elders and our ward mission leader. While we were there, the sisters in another ward called us and told us that the water in the font was green and they didn't want to use it. We have a connection in our ward with a company that has a pipa..a big truck with clean water that can fill the font. I was confused why the sisters were in charge of the font because our ward mission leader assigned the elders to make sure the font was good to go. The sisters also had a baptism that day rght after us so the elders pushed the responsibility to them! Our ward mission leader wasn't very happy. Anyway...we gave the number to the company to the sisters and they were working on getting the font filled.

We arrived at the chapel at 5pm but no one had keys. The sisters (Hna. Junca and Hna. Sappenfield) were there and told us that the font still has no water. They called the people with the pipa and they waited for them but they never came. We were waiting for the elders to come with the keys to open the chapel for like 30 minutes, too. It was 5:30 when the chapel was opened with our baptism was at 6. The font still had no water. We called and called and the pipa people never came. We waited and waited but at a certain point, we decided to just fill the font with the green water and deal with it. But it was like 630 by this point and we had two baptisms..so we decided to combine the two and had a joint baptism. OH my goodness, I was so stressed. But Romaldo was baptized and that is all that matters. He was confirmed a member on Sunday and is now official.

On Sunday, the missionaries gave talks in church. It was missionary sunday. My first talk in Spanish in Mexico! It went well and I felt good about it. I talked about the conference talk by Elder Ballard from this last conference. We also sang a song about missionary work and the ward mission leader made me sing a solo and the others sang the chorus. It was fun and all went well.

We had the baptism for Danna and Alan Hernandez Roman. There was another little girl in the ward that was getting baptized, too. When we got there, the little girl didn't have white clothes. I don't know what happened with that, but we decided that Danna would get baptized first, and the other little girl would use her wet dress, and get baptized after. The baptismal service was really beautiful. They had 4 young boys from the primary give talks on Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and the Holy Ghost. They were so precious and the spirit was really strong. THe talks were like a minute each and perfect. The primary sang 'WHen I am Baptized' and they were of tune and half yelling but I started crying because the spirit was really strong. The BEST part of this all was that Hno. Adrain was able to baptize his kids. He was so nervous but said the ordinance perfectly. I was so happy. After, we had cake and then we booked it home.

We were so exhausted but so happy. Good things are happening here in Iguala and I am blessed to be a part of it. Oh, and Hna Hernandez and I are both staying here for another transfer so there will be more to come from Iguala.

I love you all! I love this gospel and KNOW that it is true. We have to share it with others because it is the only way to salvation. The only way to true happiness.

I have a bunch of pictures so get ready.

LOVE YOU!

Hermana Durham

With Danna and Alan

ROMALDO!!! I love this picture. We kept telling him to smile so he started laughing.

Thumbs up!