Snow, Temples, and Baptisms!

Well, sorry I didn't write yesterday. But there is a story behind why I wasn't able to go to internet yesterday.

 So this is what happened:  We got a group of 3 zones of elders and sisters (approx. 65 or 70 missionaries) to go on a bit of a trip for Pday.  We left early yesterday morning on 2 large busses to go up into the mountains where it had just snowed. It took about 2 hours to get up there.  It was great and all, and everyone had fun. When we were getting ready to leave, we were missing a group of elders.  We had no idea where they went. We sat waiting literally all day.  It was nearly dark by the time they finally got down.  What had happened was they got up to a part of the mountain with a lot of snow and ice. One elder slipped and sprained/broke his ankle, and then got stuck in about 3 feet of snow. They had to take turns carefully getting him back down the mountain, and that is what took so long, and the busses couldn't leave until everyone was accounted for. So there was no time to write yesterday, or really do anything.

This past week, with all of the fiestas going on, we had the chance to bring some of our investigators to the Temple, since we couldn't work.  This is a special occasion, since you need permission from either the temple president, or the mission president.  One of the elders knows the temple president, so he got us permission to go as a group with some investigators. Everybody had a great time. We even got the temple president to give us all a tour of the temple grounds and to answer all of the investigators questions about the temple and all. He is very knowledgable.  We also had the chance to do some baptisms at the temple with some members. This is also soemthing you need permission for, which we got. It was great also.  While the missionaries can't do baptisms, they can be witnesses and run the names on the camera (which I was able to to). It was interesting seeing the baptisms from a different perspective.

I have gained a testimony of befriending the investigators to build the trust, and allow the spirit to bear witness to them stronger.  This past week, we met with a girl who is about 14 years old.  Her mother is a member, and set up the appointment with her daughter for us.  The first thing she told us was the she does not want to be baptised. Apparently, in Orura, a closeby city, she was taught by missionaries who invited her to baptism on the first lesson, and after 2 minutes of talking to her.  So her perspective of missionaries was that we are rebots who just push people to be baptised.  We quickly explained to her that this was not our purpose at all, and we only want to help her however we can.  It didn't feel right to just jump into a lesson, so we just sat and visited with her, talking about anything and everything.  Eventually we realized that she was confortable, and gave her a short lesson. She invited us back two days later, without us even contacting her.  That was when she was finally ready to hear about the restoration,a nd the spirit was very strong, since we had already built up that trust and friendship.  She now has a baptismal date and is progessing greatly!