June 22, 2020
With the long awaited authorization to have baptisms, we finally have plans to baptize Anibal this Saturday! He postponed his baptism last week because he accepted a job on a farm, but it turns out he only got paid like $4 an hour, so he quit after the 2nd day. The baptismal service needs to be really small (only 4 people will be there) and the program is only supposed to take about 20 minutes. We will be wearing gloves and masks the whole time, and it is going to be a really unique experience! I am really excited! Also, because we have been doing all our lessons over video call, I still have not met him in person. The first time I physically meet him will be at his baptism!
As District Leader, part of my job is to interview all the baptismal candidates that are in my district. Since my district is HUGE, there is basically a LINE of people waiting to get baptized haha, so I have been doing LOTS of baptismal interviews and it has been such a cool experience! One lady I interviewed, Lety, was so happy that she passed the interview, that she called Elder Weller and Elder Calder (the missionaries that teach her) to tell them all about it. They sent me a screenshot of them talking to her and I will attach it to this email. It made me super happy to be able to approve her baptism and see her excitement when I told her she passed!
Another cool experience I had this week was one night, Elder Chavez said to me, "Elder Webster, I don't feel like I am on a mission. I feel like I am at home, but just making tons of phone calls." I see where he is coming from, because our daily schedule is not what people typically imagine when they think of the mission life haha. I had an idea to read together a document called, "The 40 Day Purification Fast". The document basically invites us to fast from food and water for 24 hours, and after we fast, make a list of 10 things we want to give up in order to more fully dedicate ourselves to the work. For example, not scrolling through Facebook or not singing unapproved music. Elder Chavez LOVED the idea, and we decided to do it together! We each have our own personal lists, and we are sacrificing our natural tendencies to show our commitment to the work and to develop a missionary-mindset. It is like putting our favorite things on a sacrificial alter with the intent of being more worthy and receptive to the spirit. Ever since we started, we have been seeing crazy miracles and success! It is really awesome to see Elder Chavez not only notice God's hand in missionary work, but also see him make the connection as to WHY we have been blessed. And the answer he always comes up with is that we are sacrificing our natural man tendencies in order to be more in tune with the spirit.
Mosiah 3:19 says,
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
One more cool thing I want to share! We organized a small little devotional zoom call with our favorite members and all the people we are teaching. One of our members insisted on helping us with the music! I am pretty sure this WASN'T allowed, but we met him at the church and he played piano for our zoom call and we filmed him from 6 feet away :) All the members loved it and want to do it again next week! The people we teach also gave us a lot of positive feedback! Anibal even said the closing prayer in front of all the members! It was sweet!
Have a great week!!
Elder Webster
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