Baptisms: Round Two

October 19, 2015


Hey Everyone,

We had another great, and very exciting week. It is exciting in all the best ways. This week, we had our second baptism in two weeks. His name is Luis, and he is a youth that has been coming for quite some time, but due to problems with finding him at home and soccer practice and games, he hasn't been able to be taught all of the lessons. My companion and I started teaching him about two weeks ago, but we are missionaries 7 and 8 that have taught him, so we came out lucky. He had a nail removed from his toe last week, shortly after we started teaching him, giving him time to finally listen to us like we all wanted. He was baptized this Saturday, and the baptism in itself was filled with small miracles.

Baptism: Luis

So as I have previously explained, when it rains, we don't have water, which was the case on Saturday, and due to another event (which I will share shortly) we were in the church building at 5:15pm, without any water in the font. Normally with normal water pressure, the font takes about an hour to an hour and a half to fill completely, and the baptism was supposed to start at 6pm. When I went to turn the handle to turn the water on, I found that it was already on...and no water was coming out. The bishop (or one of his counselors) had come earlier in the day and turned it on, but nothing had come out, so they left it on hoping that at some point the water would come on (and for those of you who remember our baptismal font experience in La Ceiba will know that that is not a great choice). So, I did all I could do. I turned off the water, and said a quick, sincere prayer, just begging for us to have enough water to fill the font and have a successful baptism, and then I turned the water back on. The font was full before the baptism started. It was truly incredible, and I won't forget the experience.

The baptism itself went very well, with talks by several youth who have become friends with him throughout the process, and his school teacher (our bishop) got to baptize him. I feel honored to have been able to participate in such a spiritual experience.

On Friday, we went to visit Oscar, our recent convert from the previous Saturday, but he wasn't home. We ended up talking to his brother, Juan. He seemed really interested, and asked lots of questions. He said that he didn't have much time and asked if we could come back the next day, and we decided to go at 2pm. So on Saturday at 2pm we got to his house and as soon as we sat down, we knew we were in for a rough lesson. He had on his lap a JW bible and a Book of Mormon, well marked and definitely not the one we had left him the day before. He started right in and talked about everything from the Articles of Faith to Eve in the Spirit World. Every once and a while I would try to butt in and say something like "if you would let me explain this to you" or even "if you don't let us speak, we can never teach you what we came to teach." Finally, he finished, and it was about 4:15pm, and he sat and kinda looked at us expectantly, and I said, "we don't believe in fighting with the bible. I would love to show you some scriptures that explain everything, but it will have to be another day." Then I testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and my companion testified of the same, and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God. The Spirit was so strong, but Juan seemed unphased. We said a prayer and we left.

We did "splits" with the Ward Mission Leader and a priest to fill the font and go back to Oscar's at 5pm to prep him to receive the Priesthood. While I filled the font (see above), my companion went with the WML to teach Oscar. As it turns out, Oscar's brother had told Oscar to sit in the other room and listen to him "show us what the Bible really says." Oscar told us (and I'm going to paraphrase) that he heard everything, but what he remembered, and really cared about was our testimony. He said that he felt the Spirit, the same Spirit he felt when he prayed to ask God if what we teach is true. He told us not to worry. He knows where he is and why. I was very glad, in that moment, that I hadn't tried to "Bible-Bash" with his older brother, and that my companion and I had just testified of the restored truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was also impressed with the surety of this recent convert's testimony. Again, I really am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that I have been able to be an instrument in His hands, and witness so many miracles.

Baptism: Oscar

Just as kind of a last note, transfers were this week, and our district leader was transferred and I am the new district leader. The other two missionaries that didn't get transferred are training new missionaries, and my companion is yet to complete his training, so I have a district with three new missionaries, and I am very excited to be serving here at this time. This transfer is going to be a great one full of all sorts of new adventures and challenges, and I am ready for them.

I love you all. I hope you all have a great week. Enjoy the colder weather, and send some my way. Haha.

Elder Aldrich

Sorry Zone Leaders, I can't send in our numbers, a dog ate our phone. HaHa