My internet time this morning got cut short, but I'm back for a minute to finish writing about the week! Sorry everyone!
So, as the title states, we baptised again on Saturday! Making it the 2nd baptism in 2 weeks! This past one was a complete fiasco, and almost didn't happen. But luckily it all passed ok, and today, I took my companion to the airport to go to Venezuela. :(
This past Saturday was a very eventful day. As you know, there is a baptismal interview that all investigators must take before the baptism, and this is done by the district leader. This interview was scheduled for Saturday morning, with the Baptism starting at 4. We go with the DL to Bryan's house, and he's not there. Neither is his family. We don't have a number to call either, or even a celll phone to try and call, so we sit and wait for a bit. After a while, we realize they arent coming then, and went to lunch. After lunch, we tried again going to their house. I might add that they live very far, and each taxi to their house is 5 Bolivianos each way. The second time around, still nobody. So we leave to recruit investigators to attend the baptism, and then go back to the house a 3rd time. STill nobody. It's coming up on 3 o'clock at this point, and our hopes are dying. Close by, there was a calling center. SO we go there, and call all of our contacts to try and find a number for the family. Finally, we call another investigator, Soledad, and she happens to have the mothers cell phone. We call, and find out she is in Cochabamba with the whole family! Apparently she though the baptism was later that day. So they rush back to Cliza, and arrive about 4 o'clock, ready to go to Punata to the capilla.
We all get in a taxi, thinking everything will run smoothly , right? Wrong. One night's rain caused 2 different roads to flood, making the route to the capilla impossible. You'll see how bad it was in the pictures. So instead of going there directly, we couldn't. Even the alternative route was underwater. It took us going another hour out of the way to get there, but we finally made it. Now, the baptism has to go through, right? No more tricks or twists in the story...
Until we get in the water. The water, by the way, is fresh river water. Freezing and slightly murkey. The baptismal font didn't want to fill, so we fed a hose through the window hooked up to a machine t o pump water in in order to fill the font. As we get in the water, bryan, who is 12 years old and very scrawney, is overcome with shivers. Probably part of it because of the nerves, the other because of the freezing cold water. I say the prayer, and dunk him... And his foot comes up! We hadn't explained the whole process of doing the ordinance twice if the whole body isn't submurged, so he was already to leave. I quickly explain, and he doesn't want to go under again! He's ready to leave the font! So finally, I explained that I'll do it quickly the second time, and he agrees. Finally, the bapstism goes through, and evenyone can relax!
And now, my companion is gone, and I'll be in a trio until next week, which are the cambios! I'll have a new companion, and new stories to account!
Heres the only road to the chapel building on the day of the baptism. It took over an hour in a taxi on an alernate route, just to get there.
This is Byan, the first of his family to be baptised! His foot came out of the freezing cold water when he went under, so I had to baptise him twice.
We are working on marriage paperwork for his parents so they can get be baptised also! This will be the first full family in my area to be baptised!
Elder Potts III
Bolivia Cochabamba Mission
