June 13, 2011: Yeah Baby!

Family!!!
   Wow, sheeshima (as Lara says!) I am so incredibly happy right now! You will not believe what happened this week. Well let me first start out by saying that we had the baptism of 12 year old Wendy Rosado this week and it was lovely.  Actually, she started crying when we told her it was time to perform the baptism and I was thinking, "Uh oh, I didn`t see that one coming..." so all the sisters got up in the room and went to the bathroom to calm her down and walk her into the water. There is so much unity and love in our ward. Then as she walked in the Bishop asked, "you do want to be baptized right?" and she said yes. As she went down and came out of the water, her face changed instantly and she had the HUGEST smile on her face. It was a great night and all the young women were on the side of the font ready to recieve her. It was beautiful. Her parents were also there and they are inactive members who have so many challenges in their family, but this week we have seen changes little by little in their home and they are always ready and waiting to recieve us. They were all in church on sunday, and that did our hearts good. There is family on their way to becoming eternal. Now the other best part of the week...remember the familia Herrera? I don`t know if you do, but we have been teaching them for about three months now...the whole family. There are 3 kids, and two parents and they are a very united family. We didn`t want to drop them when they weren`t progessing becuase we felt something so special there in their home. We kept talking about how much they need the gospel and how they have recieved answer after answer that the church is true. They have had several incredible dreams about the church...including one that was absolutely amazing. The daugher, Maria Jose, had a dream that their family was standing in the middle of several churches with groups of people standing in front of each one. They couldn`t decide with whom they wanted to go with and then the earth began to tremble and all the churches began to fall, except she said that my companion and I were the only ones left standing with our church after the earthquake. Wow, I was blown away. We were working so hard with them, but they just kept coming up with all these doubts and fears. So we dropped them for a while to leave them to think about baptism. So then last night we went back with the Elders in our sector...Elder Carnese and Elder Vareles. It was amazing. We let them take it away. They taught about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Church and testified how they can be sealed together for time and all eternity as a family in the temple. The Spirit was so strong in that room and they all sat listening so intently to the Elders. And then Elder Vereles said, "What is standing between you and being baptized this saturday?" Juan Carlos, the dad, said that he still had doubts about the Old Testament and that he wanted to talk it over with his family that night in a family meeting to decide if they wanted to be baptized. But then Maria Jose said to her mom, "But I want to be baptized!"  So, Elder Carnese said, "How about you have the family council now. We will be quiet and you will talk. You know your answer and when we leave, the Spirit won`t be as strong and it will be hard to make a choice because that`s when satan will enter. You know what Heavenly Father wants for you. What is your answer?" And as the villian on Despicable Me says, "There are pins and needles I am sitting on right now"...that is how we all felt. Then he said, " Yes, I will be baptized." and the rest of the family jumped in with yeses as well. You know me, I was crying like a baby...not really, but I was so incredibly overwhelmed with emotion and such gratitude. We love this family so much and want them to have all these blessings. Carmen, the mom, was overwhelmed as well because Hermana Mairena and I had emotion dripping down into our faces. It was so special and I couldn`t contain my feelings. As we left the house I had to yell and jump and the Elders were just laughing. I was so happy. Heavenly Father works miracles...we just need to have a little more faith in him. The only sad thing is that Junior, the son, is unsure of what he wants to do. He said that it all sounds wonderful, but he is undecided. Please pray for each of them this week. We need all the prayers we can get and I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers. As for Richard, I know some have been asking about him, he needs more prayers because he is struggling. He wants to be baptized but is letting so many other things influence him. I can only imagine how hard it must be and how lost he must feel after losing a brother in the way that he did. I am so happy to be a missionary. I love all of you so much. Do all you can to remain faithful because it´s all true.

Always,
Hermana Salmon