Another one is brought to the fold

The happy, newly baptized Emiliano
Good news of the week, Emiliano DID get baptized! Also, Agustin and Jess are doing great and everything came out okay for their wedding. The timing was perfect and they will be getting married on Thursday. Ah! My comp and I are witnesses, weird huh? Weddings here are just taking pictures of them signing the civil papers. It’s so strange, but we will have a party after at the church to celebrate. Their baptism is planned for the same day but... seeing as how Agustin has a criminal record, he has to have two interviews: one by our district leader and another by Pres or someone else he assigns. We asked our Zone Leaders who was going to do the second and they said they didn’t know, but come Wednesday if he responded the same thing (that he has a record) to our District Leader in the interview, then and only then will they call Pres to figure out what to do. I’m worried that if someone can’t get here in time, Agustin might not be getting baptized on Thursday. I guess the Lord’s will will be done. Silvia is good too. We have seen miracle after miracle with her. She was definitely someone the Lord already prepared and then handed to us. It will be about two weeks from start to finish that we found her, taught her and baptized her. There are miracles! It’s kinda like a Yuri story, but she’s had a lot of doubts about whether or not baptism really is the right thing and if it was really going to be everything she imagined. As missionaries, we know the adversary is working against these people and our job is to do everything possible to get them to baptism and not be swayed by Satan. So we spent numerous hours this week, working through her doubts, turning to the Book of Mormon and praying. She has now gained a testimony of these things. She prayed the other night to really know if baptism was the right decision and she said as she hopped into bed, she felt a tingling, zing feeling, warm, in her chest. She says she knows it’s right and since then she hasn’t looked back. We planned the baptism along with Jess and Agustin and they are all ready to go. They are so excited. It’s been so great to see.
Augustin and Jessica... look at how their countenances have changed! That is the gospel in action.
I have been sick this week… really sick. The food makes me so nauseous and I can hardly eat anything here. It’s weird. Even though I’m in the same country, everything is different. The way people talk, act, eat, are and everything. I’m still not used to it. Oh missions... so great they are.

Yesterday, Sunday was a pretty emotional day for me. Church was good. It’s been awhile since I thought church here was actually for my benefit. We are just always running around, helping investigators, calling the ones who aren’t there, going to look for the ones who didn’t come that we rarely get to sit down and actually enjoy and learn. But yesterday, thanks to faithful investigators who come by themselves, we could enjoy the classes. I learned a lot from Hermana Barreto. She teaches the new member/investigator class that we attend with everyone we’re teaching. We talked about obedience. It was very spiritually uplifting and I felt so touched. So, why do we obey? Are the Lord’s commandments ever too small or too big to obey? Can we obey even when we don’t know why we have the commandment? Of course, these are all obvious answers but I learned so much personally. She talked about how we have the basic commandments, but the Lord gives to each of us our own personal commandments, revelations, answers to prayers. Do we obey our own set of commandments? Or in other words, am I going to throw a fit or will I obey even when I don’t understand the reason for such rules or commandments. It’s simple when just learning, but if we are actually living the situation, it’s a little more difficult. Am I going to obey because I love the Lord, or am I going to disobey and not be worthy of the blessings and fail on my test of faith? I will obey because I want to prove worthy of Him at the end and because I want him to know that when he calls, he can count on me.... even when it’s ridiculously hard.

Also, the Barreto family all bore their testimonies yesterday because it was fast Sunday. They have one boy who lives in Chile and has his own family already and then they have five girls. So whenever I go to their house I feel like I’m at home. The dad bore his testimony about his daughter who is on the mish and how much he misses and loves her and how he can’t wait to hug her and hold her in June when she comes home. Paula, the other daughter, (over the weekend went to the temple for her endowments to leave on her mission) and all her other sisters followed her up to the pulpit to bear their testimonies. And all I could think of was my sisters and how much I miss them. Every single one of them bore their testimony about eternal families and missionary work. It was powerful. There wasn’t a dry eye in the whole room. I just miss all you guys. I love you so much.

The only thing I can do is put my faith and trust in my Heavenly Father. How true is that for any situation in life. We can only blaze through the winds and buck up and in the end we will receive our recompense. I just want to make sure I fully complete my "mission" here and accomplish what Heavenly Father wants me to accomplish. I can only bear my testimony that I know this work is of God. He has a plan and purpose for everything. I know he loves us so I know he won’t do anything that will harm us. He does see it fit to try his people in all things. And there comes the true test. Will we endure to the end? That is what he wants to know. Will we prove faithful? That’s my challenge to all, that we might take a look at our lives and see if we are really being faithful. That’s all. I love you all more than you can imagine. Until next week... I love you, Ash