Weekly Letter: July 12-18, 2011

para todos uds:

It´s really fun baptizing every week....especially when you´re not baptizing. We´ve tried to make that our focus lately, because in Tlalli there a quite a few Priests that are hoping to serve a mission, and the Bishop likes it when they can baptize. President Villarreal has compared it to like a key to an investigator if he later goes inactive. The one that baptized him will always be able to enter...in many cases, he may be the only one. So the last thing we want is that people get baptized, confirmed here in Mexico, and then go inactive years later while the one that has the key is sitting on a couch watching tv in Sandy, Utah. So we´ve been trying to focus on that. It´s different not being in the font...and sometimes it´s complicated when neither the Baptizer nor the baptizee know how to do the ordinance...but I can see why it´s better that way.

The brother that baptized two of 6 last week also baptized the 2 baptisms we this week....because one was the cousin of the two he baptized last week(completing the seven miracles we wanted last week), and the other one was his mom. It was pretty special how it all happened. There isn´t near enough time to mention everything that happened so that this could come to pass, but it was a miracle.

The mom is named Mayra...and she met the missionaries a year ago when they knocked on her door. She and her children had been having many problems...including one in particular, Jonathan that was well into drugs and was struggling with that addiction. While the missionaries talked to her and her family, the miracles began to happen, and Mayra immediately knew the church to be true...and her kids did too. Jonathan went into therapy and was able to overcome the habit enough to enter into the waters of baptism with sister, brother, and cousin....but Mayra couldn´t. It was one of those conditions of the Law of Chastity, the Elders explained to her that she had to be married to her husband before getting baptized. So she waited patiently a year, going to church every week with her family. Jonathan eventually got the priesthood, and is beginning to prepare to go on a mission. But she still couldn´t be baptized, even though the references she´s been giving us have basically gotten baptized right away.

Then last week, we finally were able to talk well with her....and we found out that she was puzzled about one baptism we had done, because she was not married to the father of her children either. We explained that there were two options: get married, or separation. More puzzled than ever, she then told us that she and her husband had been separated for 5 years. He actually lives in another house with his legally wedded wife...that he only came during the day to see his children for like two or three hours every other day when he doesn´t work. So then we organized the interview with the Zone Leaders, and she is fine with all the commandments...so she could get baptized...and she chose that Jonathan would baptize her.

So yeah, it was pretty special. Not everything went perfect, and we had to sort some things out before the baptism, and there isn´t time to mention everything....but one thing that happens on the mission: you really come to realize that just as the missionary work is real, so is the adversary who will do everything to deter it.

Well...that was the miracle of the week. I better go because there is no time left. Thanks for everything...especially the prayers. Keep praying for us!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham