Una semana purete

 Hola,

Well this was one of the greatest weeks of my mission. It seemed like every door we clapped on was just a miracle. We clapped on Cirpriano´s house and his sister had been baptized a few months ago and he said he was way excited to talk to us cause he always wanted to check out the church and talk with the missionaries, but he thought he had to be invited by us first. I almost did a fist pump mid-lesson. He is way excited to learn more and way pumped for general conference.

We also met Romina. We talked a bit about her life and she said that she was single when she was 7 months pregnant with her child who now is like 8 months old and I was just trying hard to listen to her and feel the Spirit and the question came: How did you feel when you were pregnant with your child? After that she just completely opened up and told us about how she had considered aborting her child and her first husband with whom she had already separated was not letting her see her first child and how she made the incredibly difficult decision to move away with her new child and another man to try to make a better life for her new child. She cried when she talked about how much she regretted considering taking the life of her child and how horrible she felt for being with a man that she wasn´t married to and how she has no hope and is afraid of God and doesn´t want to pray to him. And then the words came and we told her how she is a child of God and He always wants to help her and the second time we visited she was a lot better and at the end of the lesson she offered one of the most heartfelt prayers I have ever heard. My eyes started watering when I heard it and after I was just thinking about how if everyone felt the same way when they sinned that there would be a lot less sin in this world. It is always amazing to see how I learn more from these people than they learn from me.

We also had a baptism on Saturday: that was a baptism of the branch's but because we are basically the church leaders here we were responsible for organizing it all. One of the churches had a broken water system so we had to change it last minute and then we couldn´t find the key for the baptismal font.. So we entered in from the back door where the people go in to be baptized and started trying to break it open... Which did not work. There is a pretty sweet video which I will show when I get back. But finally the branch president from the other branch came and opened it for us cause he found the key. Crisis averted. We almost were gonna do it in the river which would have been sweet, but the important thing is that she got baptized. She is so tiny.

Elder Ollerton got sick this week so we were stuck in the apartment for the day, so I made a new map for the area using the google map print out that someone else had made. I had to use my math skills to make an exact copy only 3 times bigger. Also, I made Elder Ollerton soup but we had nothing to measure the water, so instead of eye balling it I took measurements of the container and poured it in until it reached the point of 1 liter. Needless to say I was pretty pumped about that. haha.

Today we gave a training in our zone meeting and we drew in 20 bricks on the wall each one for 4 years of life and drew in a half brick to represent the mission to show how we need to take advantage of every minute. We also talked about how if we lose time in little things every day that it adds up to a lot. Everyone left more excited to work so we were pretty happy. The Lord helped inspire us with that one. It is crazy that I have less than 11 months left. I don´t want to think about it, but I am so grateful for this time I have to dedicate everything to the Lord. I love being a missionary.

Con amor, Elder Hawk

More pictures of the well

                         

The Bricks of our Life

Baptism Day