This week we baptized Mercy's son. Jhonson Estiveen (That's Salvadoreñan for Johnson Stephen). He was pretty positive a while ago. But his aunt is super catholic. She started working on him super hard. Telling him stuff like his family would reject him, that no one would love him, if he got baptized. When I started teaching the family he wasn't positive at all. But his mom got baptized. She told him that if he didn't get baptized too he wouldn't be able to get into heaven to be with her. He changed his mind this week, and we scrambled to be able to get him baptized the same week. It was pretty fun. The baptismal pila was taking a long time to fill up. We had the service planned for the morning, before church- so we didn't have much time to wait for it to fill up. In the time before the service started I practiced with Jhonson over and over to get his form down so we could baptize him in the little water we had. (really lucky that he's a pretty skinny 9 year old kid). It was a really cold morning (below 70 is freezing here) and the water was cold cold cold, but we did it! It was awesome! He was so happy!
My new companion is Elder Crespo. He's from puerto rico. He's really really cool, he was my friend before we were companions and I was pretty excited when I found out he'd be my new companion. He comes from Alta Vista in Ilopango. (I was in that ward a year ago). His last companion was Elder Hernandez (my son!) He and Elder Palmer switched places. So now Elder Palmer is in Alta Vista with Elder Hernandez. (Hope that all makes sense)
We had a really cool experience yesterday:
There is a part of our area named San Rafael Cedros. It's a completely different city kind of far away. I've never really been there- just passed through in bus. We found a family in a canton close to Cedros. (canton is village) (contact at the cemetery activity) that we've been teaching. There is one member that lives in Cedros and he's part of the branch presidency.
Last week I called him and set it up so that he could pass by and take this family to church on Sunday. Sunday came around, and not even the member came to church. I was ticked. In ward council we were talking about it, and it came up that the member has been struggling with depression. I felt like such a jerk. I totally judged him without understanding the details. I don't know why (well, it was the Spirit) but I felt like I should visit him. All week I thought about him every day, and the desire to visit him just kept getting stronger and stronger.
I don't know where he lives, so I made arreglos (I can't remember how to say that in English) with the EQ president to visit this guy (the member that lives in Cedros) on Sunday. This Sunday, yesterday, the member came to church. And because of that the EQ pres decided that we didn't need to visit him anymore. I was a little annoyed, but then I realized I could just talk to the member himself, he was the one we were going to visit anyway. (I hope this is all making sense).
I talked to him and said we wanted to do a family home evening, I showed him my agenda so he could see what time he wanted us to come. Long story short he wanted to visit our investigators with us before we visited him in his house. He went out with us to visit the 2 families we are teaching in the village kind of close to Cedros. It was an amazing lesson. This member is a returned missionary- and he knew exactly what to say. I didn't have to worry about him going off and saying random things (like every other member I ever try to visit with).
Long story short- amazing lesson.
He took us back to the city and started to show us around town. He was so excited to work with us. And so excited to show us Cedros. He told us that we are the first missionaries to ever visit that city. He was so excited to show us all the landmarks so we can get around, and making sure we could find our way back to his house. He even stopped a woman in the street, a friend, and introduced us to her. He told her about a family home evening we were going to do and invited her. It was awesome! Perfect member to work with.
We went to the house and had a great family home evening with them. His wife was so excited to see us. She told us we were the first members of the church to ever visit her in her house in the 8 years they've been together. She is from San Vicente, and He's from Santa Anna- so I'm starting to think that no missionary had ever set foot in San Rafael Cedros to proselyte. They were so so happy and excited for us to be there. We have a noche de hogar planned with them for tonight as well. They gave us a ride home and the atmosphere in the car was kind of hard to describe. Kind of like the night before Christmas and everyone is just giddy, and randomly bursts out singing songs. it was like that. The family was excited because someone remembered them, and that the missionaries are going to be working in the city where they live. And we happy for the same reason, and for the discovery that we had found a city that had never been touched by missionaries, and a family who were super eager to help.
It all started because I've been trying to be more loving and understanding. I was just looking to help that man, because it seemed like he could use a pick me up. And it looks like the Lord was just waiting to bless us. It's all about helping the people and following the spirit.
Great end for the week.
Love you all!
Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman
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