August 4

God Knows Everything. Period.

Hey everyone. I love you and miss you a lot. I´m writing to you this week with awesome news—

I have to tell you all the crazy details!

Saturday we had scheduled lunch early because we HAD to get the chapel to prepare the font for the baptism at 5 pm. But when we got to the chapel, everything was locked!!! The doors and gates for the font are never locked, so we were so surprised. So we called the bishop and figured out which member has the keys, and thank goodness he answered and came right away!!! Good old Brother Perez.

But ¨right away¨ when the chapel is a few suburbs away and you don´t have a car is not really as fast as it sounds haha. We had planned to get the font started and take the bus to another suburb to pick up Aurora, one of our investigators, so she could see the baptism. Having investigadors in a baptism is soooo cool because they feel the Spirit. And it´s new for them in a way that it´s not new for me anymore. They realize the miracle that is baptism. They feel the power of the same baptism that Jesus Christ practiced—with the same authority, at an age of responsibility, by immersion.

But when we saw that we wouldn´t have time to go pick her up before the baptism, we started calling all the members who lived near her, because she doesn´t have a phone. We asked them if they could stop by and explain what had happened and how to get the chapel. But no one could. Everyone was either not at home or not answering (this suburb is famous for it´s bad signal).

So about an hour later, Brother Perez gets there! We turn on the boiler and start filling the font with cold wáter because there´s no time to wait for the water to heat. We really want Aurora to come, and Emmanuel is running late, so we decide to chance it. We seriously have no idea how this is gonna happen or how late we are going to be to the baptism, but we run to the bus stop a Little ways down the Street from the chapel. As I look at my watch and think, ¨What the heck are we doing?¨ a new member who is a taxi driver pulls up!!! ¨Let´s go,¨ he says!!!

So we made an hour and half trip in 30 minutes.

We could not be any happier when we get to the chapel, on time, with Aurora and her son. It was amazing!!! We take her on a tour of the church while we wait for Emmanuel. She loves the church. And so does her son. Another special investigator, Jacquelin, shows up!! We´re just happy little clams, so content to have investigators at the baptism and so excited for Emmanuel.

So then Emmanuel calls The car broke down and they are super far away. They´re not gonna make it.

My mind:

What.

Can you repeat that?? I just imagined that you said you´re not coming to your baptism.

…Umm.

Until you are a missionary (or maybe Nona), you have no idea how hard it can be to get people to an event like a baptism or Sacrament Meeting. They will accept a thousand lessons in their house, they will read their scriptures and say their prayers and experience the confirmation that the church is true, but something always seems to happen the day of the event. And here we had two, and no baptism!!!!!!

But I am here to tell you that God really knows everything that´s gonna happen. He just thinks of everything. I learned this weekend that missionary work really and literally is in the Lord´s hands. If it needs to happen, it will happen.

The other ward had a baptism scheduled at 6! It started right on time. Aurora said it was beautiful. Jaquelin said, ¨I feel like I want to cry and I don´t know why.¨ It was a beautiful day, a day where I realized that God is so perfectly aware. That I can depend on Him. That if I do everything in my power, He won´t let a single one of His children fall.

Oh, and Sunday. Sunday Emmanuel got baptized. Right after the church services, when all of his friends from the ward could be there to support him. It couldn´t have been more perfect. ¨All we have to do is work our very hardest and get ourselves out of the way so Heavenly Father can do his work through us,¨ (as my nursing school buddy Libby Jensen wrote me this week).