Big Days

This was easily the most stressful week of my mission, but also one of the most rewarding. Rosa was on date to be baptized on Sunday the 6th (yesterday), and Giovanni was going to be baptized on the 13th. But on Monday last week we got a call from Giovanni's dad asking if we could move up the baptism to the 6th instead. So Sister Ivie and I ended up having two completely unrelated baptisms to plan out, with two separate services and tons of details to figure out and keep track of. 

Another thing that made this week really busy was that we did our first 2 exchanges as Sister Training Leaders. For the first one, I spent a day in Perth Amboy with Sister Berry. It was really fun because she served in my area when I was in Union City so we are good friends. For our second exchange, I stayed here in Elizabeth and my companion for the day was Sister Robinson, an English missionary. That night we taught a lesson to a Cuban lady Ana who was chattering on in rapid-fire Spanish. Although Sister Robinson didn't understand a thing Ana was saying, she looked her in the eyes and bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith. It brought the Spirit so strongly and afterwards, Ana said she understood what Sister Robinson was saying even though she doesn't know English. It was a really powerful moment.

There are so many details to plan with baptisms -- who's doing the baptizing, who's giving the talks, who's saying the prayers, making sure there is enough clean white baptismal clothes, making sure the baptismal interviews get done, filling out the paperwork, etc. It's always a little stressful. Planning two separate baptisms for the same day just increased the stress about tenfold. We had printed out the baptism programs on Saturday afternoon and we didn't realize until about 8pm that we hadn't even asked anyone to give the talks at Rosa's baptism! So we had to scramble to get everything put together. 

Sunday morning we left the apartment just before 7am to go to ward council. While in ward council I was stressing out because the family who usually picks Rosa up for church wasn't answering the phone. I was afraid the baptism would have to be cancelled just because she couldn't find a ride to church. That would have been so sad. We ended up asking someone else in the ward to run over and pick her up. It was a major sigh of relief when we saw Rosa arrive at church just a few seconds before sacrament meeting began. 

Rosa was baptized right after church. She is amazing. She is from Uruguay but looks super white because her parents moved to Uruguay from Poland in the 1940's to escape World War II. She is one of the most prepared people I've ever met. She was a referral from Charlie and Nancy, who got baptized about 3 weeks before I got here. She had been a heavy smoker for 40 years but quit smoking right before I got here so that she could prepare to be baptized. It was so hard for her to give up that habit, but her desire to be baptized and enter the Lord's kingdom was stronger than her cravings for cigarettes. She was baptized by Charlie and was so happy afterwards. I feel so lucky to have been able to play a small part in helping her and I have learned so much from her example. 

Right after Rosa's baptism was Giovanni's baptism. He is 9 and his dad is Colombian and his mom is Ecuadorian but he was born here in NJ. His parents are both members but he wasn't baptized when he was 8 because they were waiting for his dad to be able to get the priesthood and baptize him. Since he's 9 now, the responsibility of teaching and baptizing him and filling out his baptism record fell to the missionaries instead of the ward. He is so cute and was so ready to get baptized. After his baptism, he bore his testimony about how he is going to be a good person and follow Christ and it was adorable.

I feel so grateful to have been able to watch these two children of God make a sacred covenant with him yesterday. Planning it was stressful but it was so worth it. I love being a missionary!

<3 Hermana Harris