Weekly Letter: February 22-February 28

para todos uds:

The work goes on.

I cannot believe that next week are changes. I imagine that I will be staying here in this area, but still it´s really weird to realize that it´s already been a month and half since when I was in Centro. Of course, this change I was in two areas, so maybe that´s why this change went so fast. It´s funny, Elder Perez cannot believe that in ten days he will be in his house! And I can´t believe it either! The first few months of my mission, I was aware of people going home from their missions, but now I´m seeing missionaries that I´ve known going home from their missions. At the beginning of my mission, Elder Perez was in the same zone, I asked him how much time he had, and he told me that a little more than a year...I never thought that I would be his last companion in the mission...but here I am!

The time really keeps going without any sign of stopping. I´m starting to finally feel like I have a year in the mission, but it´s really weird to think that I´m half way done. At the beginning of my mission I thought that two years were so long, that I would be a missionary for so long....but wow! A year has already gone!

Before I get distracted by how fast time goes like I always do my letters, I think I should write something a little more significant. This week, we also had some fruits. The baptism that we had scheduled for this week went through and it was really special. She´s named Amalia, and had several fears about the baptism, I think due to the fact that she´s half-hydrophobic. We told her that nothing was going to happen, but she still had some concerns during this week. But Saturday, when we showed up with the other Elders that were going to interview her, she said that she felt extremely calm about the idea of it.

However, when the day of her baptism came, she starting feeling worried again, she was shaking visible before she entered in the font. When she entered, she was shocked that the water was so warm. Then when Elder Perez baptized her, she closed her eyes, but as she was submerged in the water, she said that she saw her own baptism as if she were standing outside the font. She had been worried that at the last second she was going to have a panic attack in the water, but there in the water, all those worries were subsided. It was a great experience.

After our services, we had to run to Centro, because they were going to baptize a family that I had begun to teach, and one of them wanted me to baptize her. So Sunday was full of baptisms, and it felt really special. I will admit, that I feel better when another brother baptizes somebody, but even so, with this family it was something special. I had started teaching them with Elder Mendoza like four months ago, and I felt like they weren´t going to progress. So we only visited them once a week. However, with Lauritzen they began to show interest near the end of the change, and I felt like it was possible that they would be baptized, but I really wasn´t sure. However, yesterday when they were all dressed in white, I realized how the Lord sees His children, and never forgets them, even when they appear not to "progress." I was also moved by the symbolism of the baptism that I hadn´t recognized before, and how similar it is to when we go to the temple. Seeing that family all in white made me think of how it would be when they entered the temple together, and then my eyes were opening in seeing how the baptism really is just a step towards the temple, and how everything in the church and in all the ordinances point to the temple!

Anyway, we had several good experiences this week. We don´t have anyone with a baptismal date, but if we work really hard this week, I think we can baptize at least two more this week...maybe four. It would be a great way to send off Elder Perez. I think we can do it, but we do need some help, because it would be a small miracle if we baptized these people this week. But I believe that with the help of the Lord, we can do it!

Thanks for everything! Please keep praying for us here, we need the help!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham\