Baptism this week

So, super awesome story this week about baptism and how Satan is actually a huge jerk.

So, last week I told y'all that Isabel couldn't be baptized yet because she hadn't attended church enough and she wasn't quite ready. Well, that conversation happened on Sunday night, and we didn't see Isabel or Jesus until Tuesday becasue of P-day. Tuesday, we went to see them and give Jesus an English class, whcih is basically just half an hour where all he can speak is english because he kows a lot of the rules and words, he just needs to practice speaking. So, of course, becasue we're missionaries and we're vaguely devious, we always use this time to ask him how he's feeling about things and see how his testimony is improving. All in english of course, because this is an english class, but because it's an english class given by missionaries, we use as way to follow up on his commitments. 

But this English class was weird and he was just a little bit distracted the entire time. So, of course, we asked him what was going and he told us in slightly broken english because he didn't want to tell us in spanish so his mom couldn't understand - that his mom was fighing with him because he decided to go ahead with the baptism and there was some pretty bad things going on and she wasn't going to come to his baptism. And of course, we were concerned and were asking him how he was still feeling about the baptism and everything and he look us straight in the eye and said, "Hermanas, part of why my mom is so mad is because she knows I'm going to put God first. I'm doing this, I don't care about what happens, and I know that this is my trial before I make a correct decision, I know this is Satan trying to stop me and I'm not upset at my mom at all because I know this isn't her, it's Satan." 

And then he started telling us all the changes he had seen in himself and in his life since he started talking to us and dang son, it was powerful. He'd always been an investigador of gold who understood and pcked up on everythign so quickly, but to hear his testminoy, and finally hear some of his feelings about the gospel, He basically told us his conversion story because he was super catholic and his family is still pretty dang catholic, but he said he was in basically young mens in the catholic church for I think it was Dia de la Virgen Guadalupe, one of the days they were celebrating a Saint, and the scripture (commandment) of ye shalt not worship false idols came into his mind and he looked around and was like, wait that is exactly what we are doing here. After that, he tried the church of his aunt, who's baptist and he said he liked it because they used more of the bible, so he learned more of the bible, but it didn't feel right and he didn't like the way the members treated people. And then we showed up, with this message. And I remember when we had taught them the Restoration, that first sunday after they came to church and I hate to admit that our focus in the lesson was more of on Hermana Isabel because she was the one who needed more help to understand. And I remember hm making some kind of quiet under his breath comment like "this actually resolves a lot of my questions" and he just took off, keeping every single committment we gave him and more, he's somewhere in second Nephi or Jacob right now in the book of mormon and we gave it to him maybe two weeks ago, he's already started working on family history and I can't believe that the Lord trusted me enough to each this amazing soul through me. and I can't wait to have more experiences like this in my mission. But I am also going to keep an eye on this kid, because Sunday, a future bishop (at the very least) was confirmed a member of this church

And this story has a happy ending, because we got a message on Thursday or Friday from Isabel saying that everythign was just a misunderstadning and that she was going to support Jesus and come to the baptism. And she came, and so did Maria, the grandma of Jesus, which we were not expecting. It was a beautiful baptism, super spiritual and powerful and we are still working with Isabel towards baptism. The Lord is amazing merciful and Satan will do everything possible in his powerful to stop us from making the decisions that will change our lives and draw us closer to God. But we cast Satan out of heaven by the word of our testimony, and by the word of our testimony we can cast him out of lives and then the Lord can work miracles in our lives, to change us and help us. And I know this from experiences I have had before my mission and I relearn this every single week here in Mexico. 

I am learning so much, and learning how to rely on the Lord in every aspect of my life. I know if I put Him first, like Jesus did, that everything will turn out okay. One of my favorite scriptures right now is Romans 8:31 "If God be for us, who can be against us?" I don't want to come home the same person I left, because she is so much weaker than the person I am right and the person I am working to become. I love this work and I couldn't imagine anything else I would rather be doing. 

Con mi amor eterno,

Hermana Rawlings 

Pictures this week - 

(left to right) Hermana Rawlings (in case you forgot what I look like), Hermana Rubio, Jesus, Isabel, Maria, and Elder Xochipa (who baptized Jesus)

Jesus with Hermana Rubio and I