Cordeiropolis

So baptism...yeah! Now just add in a ton of complications. What type of complications you ask? We´ll let me tell you...

First off, the girls' aunt wanted to change the baptism date to this Saturday. She told the girls that their grandmother wouldn´t be able to go, and then the grandma said that yes in fact, she could, and so the girls wanted to get baptised on Saturday...and so, we went ahead with it. But on Thursday, when the elders came to do the interview, one of the other aunts came and the girls started crying, and then everyone said, "no, no, of course you can get baptised on Saturday." The other aunt didn´t come to the baptism because she wanted it changed, she is refusing to come to church, and she says she is going to beat us up...staying very very far away from her.

Then on Saturday, the only men with the priesthood that came to the baptism were Garcia and one of the branch presidency who would baptise Jana. We began to get worried because we can´t baptise without two witnesses, and thankfully at 7:55, the other member of the branch presidency walked in, watched the girls get baptised and left. Eyeroll. As we were leaving at the end of the night, Garcia said..."wow, Sisters, you don´t have any other investigators, you need to be working harder." Are you kidding me?!! We taught 9 intro lessons and not one accepted baptism. We have literally been talking to almost every person who lives in this small town. Urg. The leadership is not helping the branch, not taking care of the members, why do they think that God will bless with new members who will only fall away?

So, we´re not really excited, because we know that probably God isn´t going to bless us in our contacts. The only people who have been baptised here who are still firm are some of the family of Maria Jesus. But just keep working. Work, work and work some more.

We had a good district meeting, it was about how the book of Mormon answers every question and problem in our lives. I got to be the investigator twice. Once was with Elder Manyring (my dl and friend from Itatiba) and his son, Elder Maclain (from Eastern Washington) and it was quite funny. We then had to practice with Elder Edwardo, my zone leader. We then all talked about the atonement and baptism...inside joke, because E.Edwardo was teaching the Plan of Salvation, about our purpose in this life...and the investigator had a ton of problems, and instead of going into a lesson about the atonement and how Christ knows all of us, he went into baptism...afterward we were all like, "Baptism or the Atonement?" I won, atonement works every time!

So, think that´s it. Love you all-

S.Stapley