Hola todos!
Well this has definitely been a week for the books (I guess most of my weeks have been like that lately)! It's been an absolute roller coaster ride, seeing people go up and down and all over the place. So last Sunday, Lois just loved church and felt super good about everything. For some reason, after she went to the Mission President Fireside that night, she had a hard time sleeping and was getting way stressed out about baptism and the church. She has had ridiculous amounts of family problems that cause incredible stress. Her daughter here didn't like the idea of her being baptized but is getting used to it. The other daughter in Texas just got through a divorce and is absolutely being haunted by her ex-husband... anyway, there's all this stuff going on in Lois' family and she's a single mom, so it's been really weighing on her. Anyway, we got a text Tuesday morning from her that she had decided to not get baptized and didn't want to have a lesson for a few weeks! We were surprised and sad, and it's crazy how fast your mood can change as a missionary. We had a way good day on Monday and life was just good :) But then in an instant our world got turned upside-down and we were super worried. She said she would call us and we asked if we could talk to her in person. Thankfully she agreed and we came over that night, even though she was hesitant. We brought over one of our favorite young couples in the ward (the Rappleye's) and when she saw us at the door she laughed and talked about how we were bringing "reinforcements". We sat down and started out like normal, just talking and she brought out all kinds of concerns. There was something about prophets (specifically modern-day), tithing, and how this is going to cause some major commotion in her family. We found out that she has been going through a lot a lot of stress and all these things just kind of built up to that point. We had an incredibly spiritual lesson and bore powerful testimony about the truthfulness of all these things. She really felt the spirit and had a total change of heart. The Rappleye's were also awesome in their testimonies and being straight-forward with her. He asked her what happened between Sunday and Tuesday that changed her mind completely, and we found out about all these family issues. Anyway, we all felt the spirit super strong and at the end, Lois' fellowship from Gilbert suggested that we give her a blessing of comfort and counsel. We did so, and it was just a powerful experience. She didn't get baptized this last Saturday, but will very soon! We went over Saturday and found out that she had a crazy experience on Wednesday. I guess she was about to take a left turn at an intersection (the light was yellow and she easily could have made it) but a voice very distinctly told her to stop so she slammed on the brakes. Right as she did so a huge lifted truck barreled through the intersection and ran the red light. Lois was shocked for quite some time, and is still recovering from it, but knows that it was because of that blessing that she had that experience and that her life was spared. We also brought "On the Lord's Errand", a biography of Thomas S. Monson, and watched it with her, to help her understand who our modern-day prophet is and how he was prepared. It was incredible and when we asked her how she felt afterward, she said she believed it! The March ensign we feel was made especially for her because it has exactly what she needs with prophets, and the need we have for them. She also came to church yesterday and just loved it. She met with the bishop for a while in his office and when we talked to her afterward, she said she wanted to talk about another baptismal date! That was such a relief and we were just nothing but happy for her. She's got a solid foundation in our ward already, and knows a lot of people. She said she'd talk to her friend and see what day they could do it (we may or may not have called that friend before she did and suggested a day... :)
As far as changes in that ward, we also found out that Bro. McKendrick is our new ward mission leader! We're sure going to miss Bro. Thompson, he was just a real fireball for an older guy.
So more on the roller coaster deal... On Monday we talked with Johana and confirmed her baptism on February 25th. She was super excited because she's been waiting for a while, and because she'll be able to get married and baptized right around her birthday (Sunday the 26th). When we went over on Tuesday we were setting up her baptismal program and it was fun (she and Adriana had been looking through the hymn book and listening to the songs on lds.org to figure out which ones they wanted). As we were planning she asked if she was going to be the only one getting baptized and she asked Hugo if he was going to get baptized with her. He simply said, "well yeah". That was a total surprise and so nice to hear, after Lois had fallen off-date that morning. We knew that our goal of 3 for February was confirmed by the spirit and that it needed to happen. So it just didn't happen necessarily the way that we thought it would. So we set everything up and they got their marriage license and interviews on Thursday.
We realized that we hadn't really told the ward leaders yet so we told them all on Wednesday (we didn't know for sure that it would go through or how it would go through until Tuesday), and they told us that we would simply have to put it off until the next week because it was too short of notice. We were scared, because we knew that for some reason they needed to get baptized that weekend. We prayed very specifically about it the next day and the spirit very clearly confirmed that it needed to be done that weekend, even though we didn't know why. To make a long story short, we went through the mission president and the stake president (they were all very helpful and tried hard, but they insisted that it be postponed) until the ward mission leader was finally the key in changing certain people's minds... it was such a relief and we thought everything was good.
I guess that wasn't a good idea... we found out the next day (Friday) that Hugo said he was thinking about not getting baptized. Johana said she had put on facebook that she was going to get married and immediately all these people asked all these questions and it came out that she was getting baptized. Of course there was all kinds of opposition and people trying to persuade her not to do it. It got pretty ridiculous and I guess Hugo saw it and was starting to have questions and doubts. He asked about some things and we talked a lot about faith. The whole lesson was super intense, because it was the day before their baptism and we needed to get everything resolved. As we were talking, Elder Twitchell said Johana had a scripture she wanted to share with Hugo. She started reading in Alma 32;17-18 about faith and asking for signs before we believe. That really touched Hugo and he read a little further in verse 21 about the definition of faith. I was surprised because I knew that she wasn't that far in her reading! I didn't know how she had found that one. I guess she just prayed and flipped through it, and that's the page it landed on! What a miracle - we asked him how he felt about getting baptized the next day and we all waited.... he said he was going to get baptized and that he would keep learning more and developing his testimony. It was a pretty sweet experience.
So we did have their boda/bautismo (wedding/baptism) on Saturday morning and it was so good! The bishop married them and we baptized them. Hugo, who generally shows no expression at all, was smiling as he went down to get baptized and Johana was beaming. She's been wanting this for a while and to have it this specific weekend was just incredibly special for her. So they're planning on getting sealed in the temple a year from now! We had all of the stake relief society there as well supporting them and even doing that delicious sherbet sprite punch thing. It was a good day! Hugo had to work yesterday morning so he came late to church but as soon as he got there he was confirmed, interviewed for the priesthood, and ordained a priest! He was struggling just a couple days ago but now is a solid member of the Church of Jesus Christ and he holds the priesthood of God. It's been quite the eventful weekend...
And to top it off yesterday was crazy and it seemed like all day long we got chastised for things that we really shouldn't have got chastised for. That plus we got put in charge of the Spanish Mission President's Fireside the night before and everything cancelled on us. It was crazy but luckily we pulled it all together last second (literally) and it turned out well. It was funny when they announced the song, we realized that we didn't have Spanish hymn books because they decided a few minutes before to change rooms. So as we were about to sing, 4 of us bolted to the chapel and scrambled to get all of these hymnbooks from the benches - it was quite the sight... After that, we stopped by Johana's b-day party and of course they made us eat all of this food and dessert when I was already stuffed. Oh Spanish work.
So, it's been a crazy week but so good! Hugo and Johana are now married and baptized members of the church and Lois will be baptized very soon. The next task is going to be finding more than one person to teach... We're confident that it'll happen :) Good stuff going on here in Mesa! Thanks for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement! I appreciate it!
Love y'all (Elder Twitchell must be rubbing off on me - y'all is his favorite thing to say)
~ Elder Carlson
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