It has been a pretty incredible week. We're pretty sure it's linked to the mission fast we had last Sunday, and we hear that it's happening all across the mission! So Tuesday morning we got a text from Angelica, who comes from a part-member family (we were teaching her before but temporarily dropped her because she's living in Tempe with a friend for a little bit). She said she wanted to meet with us at the church that evening so we said that would be cool. We met there and were just talking and then after we said a prayer we just asked her why she wanted to meet with us. At first she shied around the question and said she just wanted us to teach something, and then... she said she wanted to get baptized!! I guess she'd been meeting with the bishop every week the past few weeks and has been doing some real searching. She had been taught like 2 years ago and was going to be baptized, but took off and ever since then she has just said she's not ready. We were absolutely blown away, and it was completely out of the blue. Straight-up miracle. So we started planning that baptism, she got interviewed, and she's all set to get baptized this week. Miracle #2: We had a lesson with Saturday night with Xochitl Castillo (also from a part-member family and somebody that has been taught for a very very long time) and we decided to bring Nelly Ramirez, a recent convert from the first time I was here in Mesa. They totally hit it off in the lesson even though Xochitl said she was depressed, and she brought her to church yesterday. So we were standing there talking with them and President Richardson (the old branch president here - from when it was a branch) came up and asked her when she was getting baptized. We talked about it a ton with her before but she's always said she hasn't got her answer yet or that she's already been baptized before. Somehow this time was different and it became very legitimate and real. She pulled out her phone and started checking her schedule to see when she would have time and be able to do it. Somehow we decided on doing it this Wednesday (which is Nelly's birthday) and it looks like Angelica might do it that same night which is kind of funny, because they're cousins about the same age (22 and 23). That has just been an absolute miracle, because everything completely changed with them. Their whole attitude, demeanor, and just everything. I don't know if I've ever been quite so happy at church before. It was pretty incredible.
That has definitely been the highlight of our week - the rest kind of pales in comparison. I also got to do a pretty sweet baptismal interview for a super prepared guy this week. I guess his wife was a member for a long time but they had never really gone to church before. They didn't put much into it, and they didn't get much out of it. Plus, his kids weren't learning anything, so they found themselves just searching. They had kind of talked about the church for a long time, and they decided to do a bunch of research. He prayed to God and asked for guidance, and got a very specific, direct answer that this is the path he should take. So this is all before he even had met with the missionaries. I guess that makes the teaching process quite a bit easier... He had incredible experiences with tithing and the word of wisdom, and stopped smoking cold-turkey. He said he hasn't even had the temptation to smoke and he knows it's God blessing him for obedience to that commandment. He has a ton of kids, so it'll be cool to see some of them get baptized in the future.
I went on exchanges with Elder Lee, an awesome missionary in the zone who stepped down from zone leader to train Elder Tuavao, who's from Tonga. We had a super good day, and I got to meet this incredible family that they just started teaching. A lady who's a member just moved in with this friend and her family, and the family just latched on to the gospel. They absolutely love the missionaries and everything that's taught, and it looks like he's going to be able to see them get baptized Christmas Eve right before he goes home on the 27th! She's completely fluent in Spanish so of course it was fun to go over there and teach her - it's weird to think about life when I didn't know Spanish. I guess there have been awesome experiences all over the mission where people just have come to the missionaries saying they want to get baptized. All I have to say is tis the season! If there's any time to see success, and when people's hearts are opened, it's going to be now. The Christmas lights here are quite the hit, and we've been getting a whole lot of referrals from that. We actually tracted out both of the main trailer parks in our area (where our 2 families are that need to get married), so we could see where any potential is, and so we can make sure everyone is invited to see the lights! Everyone can feel the spirit there and recognize that it's something special. People here love it. So during this glorious tracting, we've had some cool experiences being chased by dogs, hopping fences, and confronting some very unhappy white people (and Mexicans who love the virgin Mary and thus won't talk to us). But...we also found a sweet potential family that had been meeting with missionaries before, but had moved and just lost contact! So we're excited for anything new, and we're definitely seeing some new potential here.
So yep, we're getting excited as Christmas nears, and people are getting ready to be baptized! We've also got the family of Alberto and Adriana that are going to get baptized Christmas Eve and confirmed on Christmas! WE had a great time painting their trailer the other day (we had no idea we were going to paint the whole thing), and they were telling us how they had been telling all of their friends that they had changed religions and were coming to our church. It was funny because part of the reason we stopped by Saturday morning was because we were pretty sure the Jehovah Witnesses would come by her house (they had been for a long time), and we wanted to make sure they were strengthened and prepared :) Our high councilor over ward missionary work is super awesome and helping us finance the passports for these people. When we asked him he said he would talk to the stake president and then changed his mind. He didn't want to have to wait to get permission or anything else so he talked to his committee and had everything ready in a matter of a few days! Awesome.
So that's what's up! It's raining right now, and Arizona drivers don't know what to do - they're going super slow on the road... It was way cold the beginning of this week (like mid-30s in the morning - cold for here) but it's gotten a little warmer. Thanks everyone for everything!
Feliz Navidad! ~ Elder Carlson
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