Thursday, September 23, 2010

Baptism & Zone Conference

Well this week was great .. again. lol I guess that's about it! Just kidding. What did we do? ummm.. So we had a baptism this weekend and it was my comp's first baptism. It was a great baptism of a woman, Carmen Domingo Castillo. It's family! lol She is 67 and is amazing. In two weeks, her 16 year old son is going to be baptized. It's really awesome to see the change with this family because now all the older siblings are being taught.

Two days before the baptism, all of her children were in her house when we happened to stop by. It was a great blessing. The three older ones listened to us explain a little about our church and what their mother was about to do and why she felt like it was right. Carmen was able to finally share with them her feelings and thoughts about the church and it was awesome. We asked them to continue learning and to find out for themselves if it was true upon which they accepted. We passed them on to the other elders in our district because they are not in our area but they are golden references. They really were actively listening and participating and it was so amazing to see Carmen just radiating with joy from the fact that her children were listening.

This week we had a surprise conference with Elder Foster. He is now in the area presidency here in the 70. He and his wife are actively learning Spanish. He knows a decent amount (maybe from a mission) but it's fun to see them learning just like us. Anyway, at the end, we got a pic with him and our zone and he took one with all three zones that were there for this conference. It was really great! I loved every min of it, but the really cool part was after we got our pic with him. We were shaking hands and my president said he needed to talk to me for a min. and that it was nothing serious but to hang around. So my comp and I hung around.

After all of the hand shaking, my president pulled me into a room with Elder Foster. I thought to myself, "oh shoot what did I do?" My pres went to shut the door and never came back. It was just Elder Foster and I. I looked at him and my heart began to race. He then began to talk and said, "Hermana Castillo, I saw you out there during the conference and felt that I needed to get to know you." ( I just looked at him with a blank expression.) Then, he began to ask me about every question that someone could about my family, my life, before the mission, my dreams, my goals, my hobbies, my mission, how it was going, if my zone was obedient, if I think that we could be better and so on and so on. We talked for about 10-15 min. It was fun, but at the end I was really confused as to why he wanted to talk to me and what he had told my president. But, that was that and he wished me good luck and said that we will meet again. Ya, it was sweet! I got to talk with Elder Foster, but I was way nervous and I think my answers were very basic and to the point. lol Oh well, it was fun!

On Sundays at a member's house, I began learning to play the guitar. It's not that hard actually and I just need to practice. lol The mom is always cooking for a while so that gives me time every Sunday to practice a little. It's really cute because the dad and his four sons are helping me out. It's so much fun and always at the end the dad sings folk music. He sounds like a real native old singer.

The sons have taught me how to beat the Rubik cube. I can do it now in about ten min. My comp and I bought one and we practice when he have really long walks between appts. and at night before we sleep. lol Yep, real nerds, but we aren't going to stop until we can do it in less than two min. lol So, this family is really funny and I love them all.

This area is really great with a lot of room for improvement in all parts and for all of us, but this area has potential to be the baptism city. There are so many people that are progressing and that want to know the truth.

I have to go but I love you all so much.

love amanda

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