The wedding
The twins in their house
Me and Ruiz in the bus
(she smiles sometimes, just not in this picture)
Freddy y familia
Dearest darlingest Familia y amigos, Hola!!! Como estan?! Thanks for all your emails and prayers--they payed off this week. I am very happy to report that this week we had our first baptism...aka- I witnessed a miracle.We were having a really hard time because we were contacting and contacting and contacting and we would find familias to teach and they would fall the same week. It is so frustrating! Anyways Our whole zone is experiencing the same thing. The ZLs eat with us everyday and last friday night they came in just so so bummed because No one in the zone was going to baptize the following day (saturday the 12th). This is Elder Molina´s last change and he is just so super stressed becuase he was going to have to report that our entire zone only baptized one family. So Ruiz and I were praying so hard to find just one family to baptize. So Saturday we were planning and we decided to start the day off with visiting 4 of ourrecent converts and then contacting all night. So studying and lunch we went to our Recent converts, namely Brian and Junior. They are twins. They live with their mom and sister and occasionally Their mom´s "friend" comes and stays with them too. His name is Freddy. He has been taught by 3 different sets of missionaries and they always set a date for the wedding and the baptism and he never shows up. So we got to their house and neither Ruiz or I know when we started talking about baptism and marriage, but somehow we got on the subject and We were like "okay, its 2 oclock now, and the baptismal service is at 4. You have plenty of time!" and he was like "okay, I´ll get baptized, but just not today. How about next saturday?" Heard that one before... "No, lets do this today!" "But im sick." "okay then we´ll call the elders and they can give you a blessing." So the Elders came and gave him a blessing and then interviewed him for baptism. Afterward they said-okay, he is pretty set on not being baptized today, but he swears he will do it tomorrow. Okay, this guy has promised to get baptized like 5 other times-so Ruiz and I were super stressed. We went and got some balloons and bought a cake and the whole time we were just praying that he would keep his word. Ruiz told me "If he really comes it will be a miracle". Okay so Sunday morning comes-the baptism was set for 7am because church starts at 9 and with Nica time that meant it would start at 8. So we woke up at 530 to be at their house by 630. and we get there and No one had even showered yet. The mom, Maria, was luckily up and ironing. So we got everyone else up and got them going. we didnt leave their house until 7:30 and only after they promised to be right behind us. So we got back to the church at 7:45 and waited. 8 comes and go-no Freddy. 8:15 we were frantically calling their cellphones-no answer, no answer, no answer. Finally they answered-lo and behold, Now Maria is having second thoughts, then we heard a swear word and they hung up. On the brink of tears Ruiz and i started marching back to their house to bring them to their baptism. so we get like a quarter of the way there and they call back-okay okay, we´re coming. But just to hurry them along we kept walking. Then we got 3/4ths (they live 20 minutes from the church) the way there and we saw a sight i´ll never forget. Here comes Freddy on his motorcycle with Maria, Elisabeth, and Junior riding behind him. It was so cool to see them finally acting on their commitments. Anyways so they stopped and were like We told you! And then they kept on going to the church-but then Ruiz and I were 15 minutes from the church! So just picture this-they drive past us and then Ruiz and I look at eachother and just start booking it behind them. Can you just picture it? Here I am this huge white girl running as fast as I can down this dirt road with a little black el salvadorañean chasing me down. I am positive we looked so funny. anyways we got there and it went great. Married and Baptized and because he completed a family-Our zone leaders get to report 2 families. woot woot. IT WAS SO COOL. You know that scripture in D&C 18:15 that says "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" Not gonna lie-It feels pretty stinkin good. But now I´ve got a feva. and the only cure-is bringing more souls to God through baptism. :D You thought i was going to say "More cowbell" huh. ¡¡Wrong-o!!Guess what else i did on sunday? I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting--of course in spanish. It was pretty sweet! Not terrifying and excrutiating horrible like i thought it was going to be. Yesterday was way awesome too. We had a super p-day. That is where all of the sisters in the whole mission get together and cook and do yoga and eat and talk about REALLY important and pertinent things for the mission. like who we will marry and how many kids we will have. it was way fun. It was at the house of President Arredondo who turns out is super fachenta (LOADED) and ¡hombre! I love their family.they are so loving and patient and funny. It was way fun to meet the other misionaras too. There are 32 sister missionaries in all and now i am friends with almost all of them (I couldnt talk to all of them. :) Okay, Now the moment i have been dreading for months. I have to tell you something. I almost entitled this email "Ham: The ultimate change of heart." Here in Nicaragua, I cannot afford to be picky about food. Remember how i said we are not allowed to eat Ham? Well its cool if we eat it in church and like with the president. Guess what they served at the Meeting. Just straight up ham. I have eaten it a few other times on the mission but it was always mixed into something so I have been justifying it. Nope-Yesterday it was just baked ham rolled up with pinapple and cheese. The worst part? It was delicious. I really like it. crazy right? Oh well- I feel like i am changing alot. I guess thats just a fun part of the deal-eating crow. hahaanyways, this is my weekly report. I hope you are all having such a great time in the snow and freezingness! I am getting way tan. Yesterday it was like oh my heck beautiful. not to the point of sweating, but just on the brink. :D ENJOY THE SNOW!! FWAHAHAHA!
Love-Hermana Barrett
Dearest darlingest Familia y amigos, Hola!!! Como estan?! Thanks for all your emails and prayers--they payed off this week. I am very happy to report that this week we had our first baptism...aka- I witnessed a miracle.We were having a really hard time because we were contacting and contacting and contacting and we would find familias to teach and they would fall the same week. It is so frustrating! Anyways Our whole zone is experiencing the same thing. The ZLs eat with us everyday and last friday night they came in just so so bummed because No one in the zone was going to baptize the following day (saturday the 12th). This is Elder Molina´s last change and he is just so super stressed becuase he was going to have to report that our entire zone only baptized one family. So Ruiz and I were praying so hard to find just one family to baptize. So Saturday we were planning and we decided to start the day off with visiting 4 of ourrecent converts and then contacting all night. So studying and lunch we went to our Recent converts, namely Brian and Junior. They are twins. They live with their mom and sister and occasionally Their mom´s "friend" comes and stays with them too. His name is Freddy. He has been taught by 3 different sets of missionaries and they always set a date for the wedding and the baptism and he never shows up. So we got to their house and neither Ruiz or I know when we started talking about baptism and marriage, but somehow we got on the subject and We were like "okay, its 2 oclock now, and the baptismal service is at 4. You have plenty of time!" and he was like "okay, I´ll get baptized, but just not today. How about next saturday?" Heard that one before... "No, lets do this today!" "But im sick." "okay then we´ll call the elders and they can give you a blessing." So the Elders came and gave him a blessing and then interviewed him for baptism. Afterward they said-okay, he is pretty set on not being baptized today, but he swears he will do it tomorrow. Okay, this guy has promised to get baptized like 5 other times-so Ruiz and I were super stressed. We went and got some balloons and bought a cake and the whole time we were just praying that he would keep his word. Ruiz told me "If he really comes it will be a miracle". Okay so Sunday morning comes-the baptism was set for 7am because church starts at 9 and with Nica time that meant it would start at 8. So we woke up at 530 to be at their house by 630. and we get there and No one had even showered yet. The mom, Maria, was luckily up and ironing. So we got everyone else up and got them going. we didnt leave their house until 7:30 and only after they promised to be right behind us. So we got back to the church at 7:45 and waited. 8 comes and go-no Freddy. 8:15 we were frantically calling their cellphones-no answer, no answer, no answer. Finally they answered-lo and behold, Now Maria is having second thoughts, then we heard a swear word and they hung up. On the brink of tears Ruiz and i started marching back to their house to bring them to their baptism. so we get like a quarter of the way there and they call back-okay okay, we´re coming. But just to hurry them along we kept walking. Then we got 3/4ths (they live 20 minutes from the church) the way there and we saw a sight i´ll never forget. Here comes Freddy on his motorcycle with Maria, Elisabeth, and Junior riding behind him. It was so cool to see them finally acting on their commitments. Anyways so they stopped and were like We told you! And then they kept on going to the church-but then Ruiz and I were 15 minutes from the church! So just picture this-they drive past us and then Ruiz and I look at eachother and just start booking it behind them. Can you just picture it? Here I am this huge white girl running as fast as I can down this dirt road with a little black el salvadorañean chasing me down. I am positive we looked so funny. anyways we got there and it went great. Married and Baptized and because he completed a family-Our zone leaders get to report 2 families. woot woot. IT WAS SO COOL. You know that scripture in D&C 18:15 that says "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" Not gonna lie-It feels pretty stinkin good. But now I´ve got a feva. and the only cure-is bringing more souls to God through baptism. :D You thought i was going to say "More cowbell" huh. ¡¡Wrong-o!!Guess what else i did on sunday? I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting--of course in spanish. It was pretty sweet! Not terrifying and excrutiating horrible like i thought it was going to be. Yesterday was way awesome too. We had a super p-day. That is where all of the sisters in the whole mission get together and cook and do yoga and eat and talk about REALLY important and pertinent things for the mission. like who we will marry and how many kids we will have. it was way fun. It was at the house of President Arredondo who turns out is super fachenta (LOADED) and ¡hombre! I love their family.they are so loving and patient and funny. It was way fun to meet the other misionaras too. There are 32 sister missionaries in all and now i am friends with almost all of them (I couldnt talk to all of them. :) Okay, Now the moment i have been dreading for months. I have to tell you something. I almost entitled this email "Ham: The ultimate change of heart." Here in Nicaragua, I cannot afford to be picky about food. Remember how i said we are not allowed to eat Ham? Well its cool if we eat it in church and like with the president. Guess what they served at the Meeting. Just straight up ham. I have eaten it a few other times on the mission but it was always mixed into something so I have been justifying it. Nope-Yesterday it was just baked ham rolled up with pinapple and cheese. The worst part? It was delicious. I really like it. crazy right? Oh well- I feel like i am changing alot. I guess thats just a fun part of the deal-eating crow. hahaanyways, this is my weekly report. I hope you are all having such a great time in the snow and freezingness! I am getting way tan. Yesterday it was like oh my heck beautiful. not to the point of sweating, but just on the brink. :D ENJOY THE SNOW!! FWAHAHAHA!
Love-Hermana Barrett
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