Wrath of the Pouches

This was a week of epic proportions. We had 6 member present lessons which required a lot of phone calls and careful planning because all the Hispanic people here have CRAZY work schedules and almost never have time to go team up with the missionaries.

My birthday was awesome. I can't believe I'm 20! Hermana Bloxham went to a lot of effort to make my day really special. She has surprises up her sleeve for me all day. She made me a cute "Happy Birthday" banner and put it on my desk. After studies, we went to the Family History Center at the church like we always do on Wednesdays. Afterwards, we were going to go home and have leftovers for lunch. BUT as soon as we get in the car to go home, she blindfolds me and drives around for a few minutes. When she parks and I take off my blindfold we are in the Olive Garden parking lot. So I got to eat lunch at one of my favorite places! She's the best. In the afternoon we visited William and taught him about the Word of Wisdom and then we visited Eddie. Later, Hermana Bloxham blindfolded me again and kidnapped me to my favorite frozen yogurt place here. Then in the evening a few members in the branch threw a little combined birthday party for me and another member whose birthday is this week. There was cake and flan and a few of them gave me cute presents. I love the members in this branch so much and it is going to be hard for me to leave when I get transferred, 

Thursday we had a meeting in East Brunswick for some of the newer missionaries and their companions. There were only about 12 missionaries there plus the Assistants and President and Sister Taggart. It was cool to be able to work with President in a relatively small group of missionaries. As always, they fed us an amazing lunch :)

For dinner on Thursday we went to a member's house in Seaside Heights, I just love it there. The beach is gorgeous. Pictures to come.

Missionaries encounter a variety of barriers that make it difficult for their investigators to get baptized. Some investigators can't quit drinking or smoking, some aren't willing to pay tithing, and others don't have a solid testimony. Lately we've been encountering a barrier of a different kind- kidney pouches. Our two most progressing investigators, Yolanda (mentioned below) and William (mentioned many times in previous emails) both have recently had operations that require them to have a little plastic pouch sticking out of their torso for several months. These pouches can't get wet, which makes it more complicated getting them baptized. We talked to President Taggart about this problem a few days ago and he said we shouldn't let that stop them from getting baptized. So now we are going to get waterproof tape and a plastic bag and make a waterproof "shield" over the pouches that will allow them to be baptized without getting the pouches wet.  Satan thought he'd stumped us with this dilemma, but joke's on him! 

So we have these investigators Yolanda and Manuel. They were first visited by missionaries about 6 years ago and have wanted to be baptized for a long time. The things holding them back was that they live together and have 2 daughters but they're not married and weren't able to get married because he didn't have passport. But he finally got his passport about a month ago, and they just barely got their marriage license this morning. They are getting married next Saturday, the 27th! But they originally thought that Yolanda wouldn't be able to be baptized until her kidney pouch comes off in October. But now that we are using the tape solution, they are getting baptized the day after their wedding, June 28th!!!

As for William, he is dying to get out of his rehab place so he can get baptized. Yesterday we visited him with the Guerras (an adorable older couple in the branch that got baptized 2 years ago and just got sealed in November) and taught him about temples. I showed him a picture of the Washington DC temple and he just looks at it and says "Wow! This is where I'm gonna get married!" It was so cute. He may need a liver transplant this week (the medical problems never end with him) but if not, he will probably be able to come home and get baptized in the next several weeks!

Big things are gonna be happening real soon!

<3 Hermana Harris