27 de julio de 2015
Well I got the call everyone. I have prayed and considered all of your
comments. My original date to return home was the 14th of September.
When I talked to President, I felt like I needed to extend my mission as
long as I could. President was very happy with my decision and gave me
my new date. It is the 12th of October. He said that he would like to
have me around longer but the missionaries are only allowed to extend
here for one month longer than their original date to go home. So there
it is people!!! Let's go!!!
This week was just great. I felt like I was on a spiritual high
every day. We were able to have 3 baptisms this week in our area. One
was a 9 year old boy named Cristian. His parents are not members but
their grandparents are and they have been taking him to church and he
wanted to get baptized. We are also teaching his mom, but she might take a
little it longer until she can join her son.
The other two
baptisms that we had was a special story. There is a family that is part
member. The Mom is a member (convert of 25 years named Maritoña) and
her husband (nonmember named Roberto) and their 9 year old son
(nonmember named Geovany). They also have a little daughter named Crystel
who is 5. Maritoña and Roberto have been married for 10 and a half
years and all that time, Roberto has been investigating the church.
There has been countless missionaries who have come and gone and Roberto
has come close to being baptized but collapses at last minute and
decides not to. It has been a giant test and difficulty for Maritoña and
she expressed her feeling to us a lot about how much she has prayed that
he will open his heart and get baptized and the desires she has to get
sealed as a family in the temple. For a long time in her married years
she went inactive because of depression. When I got to Tenosique, my
companion told me about them and their story and I had a desire to get
to know them. So we went and the first time I went, I saw Roberto but he
just went back into his room and watched TV. Totally ignored us. After
that we both had feelings of giving upon them but then we had a feeling
that we should keep trying and to be diligent. So for the following
weeks, we made visits almost every day, getting to know the family
bringing members to visit and taking them to others members homes to have
Family Home Evenings. We built a strong relationship with that family.
Two weeks ago, Roberto came to church for the first time in years. They
were all there as a family. It was a major step in the right direction.
The next week,they also went and it was Branch Conference. The Mission
Presidet came ad so did his counselors. It was very special. The main
theme was the family. That Sunday, we had a lesson with the family about
the things they learned and their impressions in the conference. They
all seemed very enthusiastic and happy as a family. Then on Thursday was
when we put a baptismal date with Cristian ( The 9 year old boy we
baptized) and after we went to see Roberto and his family. We told them
about it and we talked about baptism a little more. Up to that point,
every time we had talked about baptism with Roberto, he has told us that
he was not ready and he just did not want to touch the subject. But in
this occasion, we felt a major prompting to invite him for that same
Saturday. So I told him that we would be having a baptismal service that
Saturday and we told him that we were just aout to go and make the invitations. Then we asked him if he would like his name to be added
onto the invitations. We sat in silence for a long time. It was just us
and him. His wife was showering and the kids were out playing. It was so
quiet. He looked up at us and he said that he did not know and then he
started to tear up. We remained dead silent. After waiting for a little
bit longer, he looked up again and he said that he felt it was time.
When he said that, my companion and I felt just a rush of emotions. We
bore testimony and promised blessings. Then we started planning with him
about the baptism. A couple minutes later, his wife came out and we all
just stopped and looked at her. She was like, whats going on? I told
her that we had a special assignment for her this Saturday. I told her
that we wanted her to give a talk in the baptismal service we were
having. She was like why? I haven't given a talk in years and I don't even
know the boy who is getting baptized. All three of us just smiled at
her. Then it hit her. And it hit her hard. She just hugged her husband
and started balling. It was one of the best moments of my life. The
other best moment is when Geovany came running around the corner and
found out what was going on and shouted that he waned to be baptized
with his dad. The baptismal service was awesome. I will send a picture.
Its experiences like these that makes everything worth the effort and
hard work. I love that family.
I also went to
Palenque today. I will send pictures of that also. I love you all. I
love the mission. I was assigned to the right place and I am 100 percent
sure of that. I am so grateful for the prophet. And for the Lord. He
knew I was needed here. And I am going to keep serving Him with all my might till the end.
Elder George
Roberto, Geovany, and Cristian's baptism
Roberto and Elder Jaramillo. The only pair of senior missionaries in the mission are here in Tenosique.
Selfie with a stelagtite.
We are studs.
This is where all the natives sell the things they make. I bought a couple things.
Elder Garn and me super exhausted after hiking up like the 50th pyramid.
At the top of the temple. I failed at trying to put the pyramid on top of my hand.
The biggest tomb in all of Mexico. It's pretty big.
King Benjamin's tower.
This was supposedly a temple back in Nephi's time, biggest in Palenque.
Selfie in the Pyramids with Elder Alejandro.
On our ride back down to civilization.
Hope you all enjoyed the pictures. I plan on bringing you all to this place. It is awesome.
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