Weekly Letter: November 22-28, 2011

para mi familia:

Well, another week has just gone by and I have no idea how that has happened. Elder Granados is beginning to adjust well to the mission environment. Sometimes he still seems worried about his family at home, but really gets excited whenever we have success in our area.

Yesterday he was able to perform his first baptism in the field...it was very special for him. We were going to have two baptisms, one was going to get baptized in the second hour of church because she had to leave, and the other one was going to watch the first baptism and then get baptized at 2:00...however, the second one didn´t show up, because she had to go to the doctor at the last second. We still don´t know what´s up, but we´re praying that everything is well with Maria Isabel. When we called Maria Isabel, it became evident that she was not going to get baptized this week My companion started insisting that I baptize Lourdes. We had arranged for that to happen because Lourdes was going to get baptized earlier, and then Maria Isabel afterwards, and so that my companion didn´t stay wet so long between the two baptisms, we agreed that I would baptize Maria Isabel, and he would baptize Lourdes.

I patiently told him that it didn´t matter to me who baptized the person, just that they get baptized. I explained that I wanted him to baptize Lourdes so that he could get a feel for his purpose before going to Argentina on his REAL mission. Also, I reminded him that Lourdes already knew that he was going to baptize her, so he finally agreed to do so. When he left the font, I could see on his face that he was pleased and happy for the decision that Lourdes made, and I think it really made a difference in the way he sees the mission.

Earlier in the week we had talked to this family, the Mata Gutierrez family, which is a really cool family with 3 members that can be baptized. They´re married legally (which is always a plus in Mexico), and they really seemed receptive to the message. However, when we began to speak on the subject of baptism, Aracely, the mom began to put up barriers. Literally, I didn´t understand how she could understand and feel so good about what we were saying and not want to do anything about it. However, we kept working with her so that she could pray to ask the Lord if she should get baptized...she was about to accept the challenge, but then the her mother entered in the house and began to say a whole bunch. She said "You can talk about whatever you want, but baptism NEVER." Technically this shouldn´t have been such a problem because Aracely is 28 years old, living with her husband and kids away from the family of her mom, but obviously, it was not very good timing. She began going backwards even more, not even wanting to commit to go to church when she had loved it that week before. So my companion I guess got spooked and said "Well, if you want we won´t insist about baptism anymore." Those aren´t exactly the words he said, but that´s how he intended it. Ever since then, the family hasn´t been able to progress very much.

I talked to my companion about why he said what he said, and he said that he felt that they were being pressured too much. We talked about it a little, trying to see when he felt that they were being pressured...or rather when we were pressuring them.(because he hadn´t felt that had been pressuring them) We had a good talk afterwards where we both saw something that we could do to improve it. For the meantime, it´s really hard because we´ve become really good friends with that family, but we´ve decided to let them alone for a while. However, after the baptism of Lourdes, my companion seemed completely changed when we talked about baptism with anyone. I think he really felt in the font how much the Lord wants these people to get baptized.

I´ve learned so much from Elder Granados. More than anything, I´ve learned that I don´t have all the answers.(which has been something really difficult to accept throughout my mission). I hope to be able to learn more from him every coming day of this week.

Thanks for the support and prayers in our behalf and in behalf of Elder Granados´s family. Please keep them in your prayers. And keep me in your prayers too, because it seems that the Lord has some changes and some lessons in store for me in the future!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham