100% Submerged

Aug. 12, 2013

chillin with a neighbor! Rosi and her daughter :)tion

We climbed a mountain on P-Day! haha on top of Hermosillo :)

20 years old!

Add captionElizabeth, Anahi, Arely

Paloma and her family :)

 Angela! :)

 all four Elders took a dunk in the water too! haha

Add caption got my birthday pachage from nanny and bompa! haha loved it all thank you :)

I had an incredible week, i don't even know where to start. There is so much work here in Cuauhtemoc, our plans are jam packed, and we are runnin around like wild men tryin to visit everyone. I have fallen into the groove as a missionary here and have really enjoyed these last few weeks. Every night I crash in my pillow and I am sleeping super good haha my dreams are all in spanish. My birthday was great, like we usually do on Wednesdays we had a district meeting, and my district threw me a surprise "party" haha complete with soda and chips. They were very kind and did what they could according to their missionary budgets. I didn't want to celebrate anything but word got out to the ward and investigators that it was my birthday and they all wanted to feed me cake. I probably gained 4 or 5 kilos in just a week! The rest of the week we were preparing for our baptisms on Sunday. We went on intercambios (splits) with our zone leaders to do the baptismal interviews. All went well and we were stoked for Sunday!

Sunday afternoon turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of my mission. We had plans to start at 6, ended up starting at 6:45. haha everything tends to be a little delayed here in Mexico. We were blessed with the support of the ward and over 60 members showed up to support. Both Paloma and Angela lived up to their names (Dove and Angel) because they both looked so pure in their white baptismal dresses. After taking pictures we started the baptismal service, and immediately we could all feel a special spirit among all of us. Before we headed to the baptismal font Hermana Ochoa (best friend of Angela) gave a quick talk and shared her incredible testimony with all of us through her tears. 1st to be baptised was Paloma. Elder Castro entered the water with her and together they had a textbook baptism. Immediately after it was time for Angela and I to enter the water. If you have forgotten, Angela is a young woman of 72 years and is very large. In order to baptised her we had planned to have her sit in a chair while submerged in the water and then lean backwards, trusting in me to dunk her completely under the water. She was a little nervous but I helped her down the stairs. As we stood in the water together she began to tense up and was squeezing my arms as I tried to help her remember what we had practiced. I could see a real fear in her eyes. After saying the baptismal prayer, I tried to help her down into the water, but clearly she didn't make it completely under. Elder Castro joined me in the water, after saying the prayer again, we tried a second time, no luck. She was scared! She had almost given up and wanted out of the font. We didn't fight and helped her climb the stairs to the ladies bathroom. She was greeted by her friends and was calmed a little bit.

Suddenly we began to hear the voices of the ward family singing "Conmigo, Quédate Señor",  they also sang, "Grand Eres Tu". Later we learned the Bishop had offered a prayer in front of the congregation too. Angela was strengthened by the faith of the members and once again made the trip down into the font. This time acompanied with 4 elders! Our zone leaders, jumped into white jumpsuits and together, Elder Castro, Elder Rasmussen, Elder Perez and I were going to baptise her. I raised my arm to the square, said the prayer and this time we were able to baptise her correctly and 100% under the water. Immediately after coming out of the water Angela exclaimed in a loud voice. "I feel great! Farrow you told me I would feel good, but I didn't think I would feel THIS good!" hahah everyone laughed and I know that everybody wanted to clap and cheer for our special sister!

We finished the baptismal program and had a couple desserts after! Nobody wanted to leave. Everyone had really been uplifted by the spirit, and we were all able to grow a little stronger on this Sunday night. That is what the church is all about, strengthening members and exercising our faith! I could have thrown in a million more details to this story, but time is running out. I seriously love being a missionary, and I love the experiences that I have had here in Mexico. The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.

I have learned you need to dream big, and love even bigger. The church is true, God loves us, Christ leads us. I am so blessed to have the support I have. My family, friends, and loved ones have been such a strength to me in this past year. I hope you all know you are in my prayers. This might be my last week here in Cuauhtemoc, nos tocan los cambios aqui en domingo. estoy bien animado, no se lo que vendrá pero se que me voy a gustar.

Have a great week!
Elder Farrow :)