Hey Family,
Wow this has been a crazy good week and a lot has happened. That’s pretty crazy that there is still no snow there. A least you’re getting some in the mountains so that’s all that matters right. It sounds like everyone is doing good and that josh is having some good experiences so that’s good also.
Well I have some good news. Saturday we had 2 Baptisms!!! Their names are Manuel and Ofiela. They are about 35 years old and have three kids about the ages 7, 5, 3. Here is their story. The first time I met Manuel and Ofiela was actually on my first day here in Xadani. They are both very cool and they were ready for the gospel that’s for sure. The first lesson I had with them my comp (Elder Juarez from Saitiuo Coachulia) told me that we were going to try to place a date with them. We taught them the lesson and after invited them to follow Jesus and be baptized. They basically said no, but we invited them to pray about it and that we would pass by within the week to check up on them and see how they were doing. The next day we had an appointment fall through so we decided to go check up on them (This is the lady that had a dream and me and my comp were in it). We asked if they prayed and Ofiela told us her dream. Manuel still wasn’t sure if he was ready or not but we taught him a short lesson on how we receive answers from god. Afterwards, once again we invited him to pray about it. We passed by a couple days latter and checked up on him. We asked about his prayers and how he felt. Long story short we ended up inviting him again to baptism and he accepted!
On the day of the baptism it seemed like Satan was trying to do everything he could to stop us from having a baptism. Manuel is a bigger fellow so we were having troubles finding him a pair of white pants to wear. We actually had to have a member make a pair that day for him. After we found cloths for the both of them we had to travel 25 mins by taxi to the church in Juchitan and on the way there the Taxi driver hit a dog.... when we got to the church we went to check out the font. There we discovered that the once-filled font was completely empty of water because someone forgot to close the drain. All we had to do was find someone with a key to close it, a lot easier said than done. The person with the key was in the city of Oaxaca, 6 and half hours away. After brain storming for an hour we were finally able to keep water in the font by laying a piece of plastic over the drain and wrapping a decent sized rock in a white cloth and placing it over the drain. Lucky the font filled up pretty fast and we were able to have the baptisms. Manuel was definite a lot harder to baptize then Eddi because of his size. The baptism was awesome, 90% of it was in Zapeteco so I didn’t understand half of what was said but it was also probably my best baptism so far. The spirit was so strong. After Manuel was baptized he had a big smile on his face which was really cool to see because he is a man with little expressions ha-ha so for me it was super cool to see him smiling after. I could tell him and his wife could feel gods loving arms around them.
Sunday I and my comp confirmed them members in the church which was also pretty cool because they both said they wanted us to confirm them. Later after church we went over to see how they were doing and placed a new goal for them to get married in the temple. I showed them a picture of the Rexburg temple on my camera and they are excited and hoping one day they will be able to go with their family. Elder Juarez and I are going to try to find them a pic of the temple to put in their house so they can remember their goal.
The work here is going really good here in Xadani. I like it a lot here other than the heat and mosquitoes. The heat is horrible, and I’m always sweating but I know ill survive. I that everything is going good for you guys and that you are all being safe (Jared) be careful! I want you all to know how much I love you and how thankful I am to have the gospel in my life. It truly brings joy in happiness into people’s life’s I know it does and I have seen it. I better get going.
Love Elder Hope
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