Week 59! "The Baptismal Jumpsuit..."

From 3/9/15

Usually Sundays for us are pretty crazy! Yesterday we left from one sector super early in the morning to make it to the church meeting in another at 9 am. The missionaries we in charge of singing "Bienvenido día santo" as a special musical number. Did we practice beforehand? uhhhh....of course!!! You know those 3 minutes of prep time between 9 am and when the presiding priesthood gets up to start the meeting?...Those were QUALITY 3 practice minutes right there where we went to another room and fiddled a little with the notes.

 

The problem: when we got up to sing, Hermana R and I forgot what it was we had practiced. Ahem.

 

Elder O has a super great voice. He started off with a solo! Woo. Awesome. One mother (I kid you not) even bent over to her small child to hush him so that she could listen to the wonderful musical number by the missionaries.

 

Then, Hna R and I started singing the chorus....when we weren´t supposed to. We hushed quickly, but I tried to recover by coming into verse two accompanying Elder O by singing the harmony. But, as I did, Hna R elbowed me in the side and said quietly but firmly, "Cáyese! Cáyese! No es su turno. Cáyese!" (in other words, "Shut up! It´s not your turn to sing yet") and shook her head side to side, indicating for me to stop singing. I was thrown off! The alto notes took a turn for the worst....but now what could I do? Me tocó a continuar! So I continued...Then all 4 missionaries came in at the chorus and last verse of the song.

 

When it was all over, me and Hermana R embarrassingly grabbed our mochilas (backpacks) and scurried out the church house door....relieved to have an excuse to leave since we had to go straight to the other ward at 10 am). jejeje It wouldn´t have been SO OBVIOUS if she hadn´t have elbowed me in the side and told me to shut up IN FRONT OF EVERRRRYYYONE. jaja

 

But, after the block meetings in the other sector came the payback:

 

We had to hop on a bus that only comes every 25 minutes or so to make it to our lunch mamita after church. I got on okay, but the bus took off and closed the doors, leaving Hna R yelling and running from behind.

 

"STOP! STOP!! THERE´S ONE MORE! STOOOOOOOOOP!" The bus driver finally looked back wearily and sloooowly stopped the bus. I peered out around the door, newly opened, and saw Hna R sprinting from behind to catch up.

 

All the people who saw what had happened at the bus stop were motivating her on, "GO GO GO!!!" They shouted. Until finally, about 300 feet later, we were reunited once more. :p jajaja

 

Oh the adventures...

 

Well that´s all for this week. Love you all and take care!

 

Hna Fernelius

 

"We currently have a MIRACLE person! :)

 

She has a fecha [baptismal date] for the 28th. She has 2 asistencias [gone to Church twice]. She lives alone and is about 42. Her father is a church leader in Quito and came all the way here to hunt the missionaries down so we could visit her. The night we got the reference, we were heading to consejo de barrio [ward counsel] at the casa capilla [Church]. The Elders called saying a man was there and was waiting anxiously for us to arrive to introduce us to his daughter.

 

We met with him at the church and he took us to his daughter´s house. There we met and took out another cita [appointment] with her. She has been prepared by the Lord for a long time! When we first visited her, she accepted a baptismal date. We presented the handout 'Camino de Fe' and she took it in her hands, looked at it, and replied, 'That´s interesting. I´ve seen this in a dream before.'

 

She was referring to the staircase structure of the steps preparing for baptism. The hermanadora [fellowshipper] who came with us that night is the PERFECT hermanador because they both like craft work and clicked that night so well. Also, due to health issues, she has obeyed the Word of Wisdom for her entire life (which is otherwise a potentially big desafío [challenge] here).

 

The other evening her father called us from Quito to ask how his daughter is progressing. We confirmed to him the good news that she is preparing for baptism (though he had intended many years before to introduce the church to his daughter and she hadn´t accepted it then).

 

He is such a hopeful man and was filled with enthusiasm and joy. He mentioned that he would love to accompany us to a cita, and to let him know when it will be that we go visit her. I asked, 'You would come all the way from Quito to join us in a cita?'

 

He responded without a second thought, 'Yes, Hermanas!'

 

Wow! We have an hermanador from Quito. :p

 

We are so blessed here. She is one miracle, along with another family that was rescued and whose youngest daughter was baptized this weekend :)"

 

At consejo de la mission [mission counsel] last Tuesday. We were in Quito for TWO meetings....Leaving Monday morning and getting back Wednesday super late at night....we were wiped from all the travel. And more meetings Thursday and Friday....yikes!!! But this week we have full time awaiting us in both of our assigned sectors!!! It´s go time. :)

What a mini´conferencia de la zona [mini zone conference] looks like.

The branch president kids climbing the tree by their house. They look like little ants. Here´s what happened:

"Mom! We´re going to swim in the rio [river]!"

Mom - "Only for 20 minutes!"

<Kids rip off their pants while racing out the door to the river>

As they jumped off the tree, we got them to yell one time "FOR NARNIA!!!" and another time "PARA LAS HERMANAS!!!!" jaja They are so fun to watch. And especially these kids because they are so obedient! They spent a long time cleaning the pigs on the finca [farm] before going out to play. Awesome!

[See the previous 5 photos for the following account]:

M and his daughter V:

M came in this white shirt to the baptism, but none of the jumpsuits the mission leader brought were fitting him comfortably. After fiddling with them a bit and trying different things, he came out of the bathroom and held the jumpsuits in his hand saying, "Don´t worry hermanas. I already gave permission for the Elders to baptize my daughter."

I probably shouldn´t have, but I put my hand firmly on his shoulder until he looked up at me squarely, and the words I had not prepared came out:

"Hermano, if you can baptize your daughter, we will do anything it takes so that you can."

An idea came to mind and flowed out directly following that sentence:

"Can you fit your legs into the jumpsuit?"

He said he could.

"Okay, then what we can do is you can put on the jumpsuit up to your waist, and keep this white shirt on that you have right now."

There were comments about how he didn´t bring another white shirt to change out of once this one got wet. My reply (jaja):

"Only the bottom part is going to get wet, not the whole thing." (i.e. "What does it matter?" :p)

He seemed to like the idea because his countenance brightened up a little bit again. He put on the jumpsuit to his waist as suggested. People commented on the little tail he had sticking out because of the sleeves folded over in the back of the jumpsuit at his hips. I once again looked at them all and suggested, "Well, why don´t you tuck the sleeves into the inside of the jumpsuit so it doesn´t hang out?"

M did baptize his daughter. And I don´t think there was another soul in the room that noticed the jumpsuit sleeves tucked into the waist back. The Lord is so merciful to help us come up with solutions in the moment even though at times there appears to be none.

This family was a miracle in the first place because they live so from the rest of our sector. M was the one who came and contacted the Hermanas (a week before I got here)! He informed them that he and his wife and daughter were less active. But....they were super solid and have great testimonies.

All this time I have felt like we were visiting an active member family. Their daughters remind me a lot of us when we were little and the connection I feel to this family is just that: very familiar-feeling. It was such a miracle and a blessing to be a part of this family´s progress and finally seeing V and her father make it to this point...his 9 yr-old daughter´s baptism :)

M is very blunt but also very funny. He reminds me of Dad.

These pictures for me are just...priceless :)

Oh! And my picaduras [mosquito bites] that are healing!!!!! I´m trying everything under the sun to get my legs better again. These mosquitoes eat me like crazy! But, it´s getting better! :)

And, the view outside our window (this picture is from this morning) :)