FIRST BAPTISM!!!!!

Buenas tardes señoras y señores!

Yes, you heard it from my title. My FIRST BAPTISM. Guau!

La cárcel (jail)

So I've realized that I haven't talked to y'all much about my friend who is now baptized and a new member. Her name's Norma! She loves pink, is a bit shy and doesn't talk a ton, but is so sweet! 

About a month ago I think I brought up that some of our friends wanted to get baptized, and Norma was one of them! However, it took us until January 8th to actually get her on bap-date. This is mostly because of problems with her boyfriend. It's a long story of domestic abuse, jail, and deportation that I think, for Norma's personal safety, will not be discussed in detail here. 

Anyways, this was probably the fastest-planned baptism in the history of Baptisms. We had a lesson with Norma on the 8th and asked her if she still wanted to be baptized. She said yes, and so we also asked her if getting baptized Jan. 18th would be good. Norma acknowledged that she might be moving to South Carolina by then. So for our final question, we asked if she wanted to be baptized here, or in South Carolina. She said here! Which meant that her baptism had to be on the 11th (yesterday). Which also meant that we had only 3 days to plan! Yikes!

But it actually worked out great! Even better than great! Because...

Antonio

Do you remember my friend Antonio? The one who comes to Church every Sunday, all the activities, has been taught everything on and off for the past 15 years, and yet STILL hasn't been baptized?

Well, since Norma's baptism was right after church, I invited Antonio during Sacrament Meeting to come to the Baptism. And he came! 

Afterwards, while everyone was eating food, Me, Hermana Wright, Marcus (her friend) and Antonio were chatting, and us Hermanas were like, "OK, who's getting baptized next?" And Marcus and Antonio point to each other. I looked at each of them and went, "o ambos? Mismo día?" (Or both, same day?). They laughed and jokingly seemed to start planning their same-day baptism.

Then later that day we had a lesson with Antonio, and he genuinely was talking about how much he loved the baptism and that he feels joy and peace everytime he does anything with our church.

He also talked about the testimony that our new member Felipe bared at the baptism. Felipe shared the struggles he had originally with getting baptized because his entire family is Catholic, but ever since being baptized, he has no regrets and feels more joy than before.

This stuck out personally to Antonio because his entire family is Catholic too, and it has mostly been the expectation to go to Catholic Church that has delayed him from getting baptized all these years. But seeing that someone in a similar situation was still able to get baptized despite those expectations, Antonio was starting to feel inspired. 

He also said he wants to get baptized the same day as Marcus. I thought we were just joking about that, but they legit want it! Jaja! 

So yeah, we invited him to pray on a date and promised that we would talk to the other Hermanas about Marcus. I really hope he gets baptized! He has such a strong testimony! 

Pensamiento Espiritual 

"And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another" (Mosiah 18:21).

I know I technically said this was my first baptism, but in truth, the idea that missionaries "have" Baptisms is low-key a bunch of bologna. It took a church-full of missionaries to actually help Norma get baptized. And ultimately, the thing that helped her choose to be baptized was the spirit. 

The other day we heard a story of a man who fled persecution in Egypt and moved to Spain. From there he was just scrolling Facebook and stumbled upon our "Ven a Cristo" page. This got him interested in our church and eventually baptized. Isn't that insane? Spanish missionaries from Kentucky helped with the conversion of a guy from Egypt! 

This truly is a great work! And not just the work of a few people, but people from around the world working as one!

Hasta Luego!

Hermana Perkins