Happy St. Patty's Day!! Wow I don't think I've ever had a week like we just had. We went from having a lot of progressing investigator's but no baptismal dates to TWO BAPTISMS planned for this week. They both seriously came out of no where and there is no other explanation than to say that God is hastening His work.
The first baptism will be tonigh at 7pm for Lourdes!! We just finished making the baptismal program and she had her interview last night. The reason why we're doing it tonight is because she wanted the bishop to baptize her but he's going out of town on Tuesday for about a week. She has been telling us for awhile that she's ready to be baptized but we wanted to make sure that she'd be able to come to church. She finally asked her boss if she could go in an hour early so that she could leave in time for church on Sundays. I think she was mostly nervous about asking him because she had to do it in English. But we wrote out a script for her and did lots of role plays to help her practice. We've been visiting her everyday this week and she is just a completely different person. I remember when we first started teaching her husband we would invite her to listen in on the lessons but she would always fall asleep before we even got to the opening prayer. Now she's the one inviting her family to come listen to our message every time we come over. She even invited us to go to dinner with her entire family. A dinner with 20 non-members is a missionary's dream!
I have no doubt that the family of Lourdes will one by one accept the restored gospel. We've had really spiritual conversations with just about all of her kids and the granddaughters absolutely adore the missionaries. The other day one of her granddaughters (Jocelyn age 9) gave me a card that said, "Thank you for teaching us about God". It was so simple but so sweet. She also told us that she wants to be baptized tonight but her dad won't let her. But one day soon I'm sure!
The second baptism will be this Friday for a brand-new investigator named Maria who just fell into our lap last week. She was referred to us by some members from a ward in San Jose. She lives in RWC but she'd been going to church with her boyfriend in San Jose. We set up an appoinment to meet her and the first words out of her mouth were, "What do I need to do to be baptized?" After finding out that she's been going to church on Sundays we decided that there's no reason to wait! We've been going over to her house every day to give her the missionary lessons and make sure she's prepared by Friday. We'll have only known her for a week by the time she's baptized! She came to our ward yesterday and made some friends so that she can attend church closer to her home instead of in San Jose. She's a perfect example of how missionary work is really not about the missionaries at all. It's the Lord's work and He knows who's prepared.
Other good news from this week is about Enrique. We stopped by to see how he was doing and he was so different. So much happier. He told us that he's decided to move on from the past and go ahead with baptism so that he can start a new life. We asked him how his wife felt about it and he said that she decided he can do whatever he wants since they only see eachother for 10 days every year. He also said that he doesn't care if it means he'll be poor, he's decided not to work on Sundays. And sure enough he came to church on Sunday for the first time in 5 weeks! We invited him to choose a date for his baptism so hopefully by next week we'll have something planned.
This week really was a great one! If only the time would slow down. But I hope to hear from everyone soon and I hope you all have a great week!
Love, Hermana Billings
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