Miracles

April 20, 2015

This week was pretty sweet! We had a baptism!!! Her name is Maria Ester. I had the privilege of baptizing her. It was awesome!!! It was such a nice experience!! Her story is pretty cool. One day, Elder Johnson and I were going through our area book and came across her name. We asked members in our branch if they knew much about her and decided to find her and teach her. Well, it turns out that by the time we found her, she had already read the Book of Mormon and had a testimony of it!! The only reason she had not been baptized was because she had an ulcer in her foot and could not get it wet. Then she kind of lost contact with the missionaries and by the time we found her, her foot had healed and she wanted to be baptized. We were more than happy to help her!!

I know it was not merely coincidence that her name popped out to us when we opened the area book or that her ulcer had healed just as found her. I know the Lord’s hand was in all of it and that he had prepared her for us to find. It is so cool to be a part of this miracle!! There was really good attendance at the service which was great! It made her feel supported!!

We played Capture the Flag with our zone last Monday. That was a fun P-Day! Later that day, we went to visit Beatriz, the lady who was baptized last week. I noticed that no one took pictures of her on this special day, so I printed one off and gave it to her. I can’t even begin to describe the happiness that showed on her face when I gave it to her!!!! She told me she did not have enough money for a camera, so this picture meant so much to her. She will always be able to remember this special day!! She is so awesome!! It was all a really touching experience for me.

Training is great! Elder Salinas is a hard worker and is doing really good with the language. He does a great job teaching! And is talking lots more!

Right now we are teaching a part member family. The husband went on a mission 10 years ago and the wife is not a member. Their names showed up in our area book as members and being that they live pretty close to our pension and we had never seen them at church, Elder Johnson and I made it a point to stop by every night on our way home. We must have stopped by at least 30 times with no answer. Then one day, with Elder Salinas, we decided to stop by at an earlier time and this time someone opened! We were told the couple we were looking for had moved to another part of San Lorenzo. They even gave us the new address. We took it and headed over to their new place. Well, we found them, and started talking with them. We taught them and now she is ready for baptism and he is ready to come back to church!!! It was a miracle that we even found them!! I know Heavenly Father blesses us when we work hard and are obedient. We never gave up on finding this family and now we are helping them be eternal! The Lord truly does work miracles!!!

I love you guys!!

Elder Carter