Hello to all!
Lets just say, this week was pure chaos, but one of the best ones of my life. Most of this week was spent and dedicated to preparing what turned out to be the most stressful but beautiful wedding Paraguay has ever seen! We had to set up everything for decorations in the chapel, clean the chapel (more than once, since some branch members got it dirty in between cleaning sessions), buy and take the cake to the chapel, make sure the couple and 4 witnesses had identifications for the ceremony, help prepare the chicken and rice for the dinner, figure out the music situation, deal with complaints from practically everyone, and meanwhile, trying to find and teach people about the wonderful message that I was called to teach to everyone. It was, for lack of better words, an insane week, but once Saturday night hit, it was all worth it.
The wedding went surprisingly smooth, our Branch President, along with other members, ended up helping quite a bit. We took many photos, everyone was really excited about the wedding, it ended up really uniting our branch quite a bit. One of the small miracles was that her parents are very inactive members. They hadn't been inside our church for over 20 years. She was worried that because we were doing the wedding in the chapel, that they wouldn't come. Well, they came, and loved it! The members welcomed them with smiles, hugs, kisses, and they seems very happy. As the missionaries, we decided to gift them a cake...and not just your average cake, but an 8 kilo, 2 story cake! We even bought a little couple thing to put on top of it. An of course, they were awestruck when they saw it. All the stress, preparations, headaches were all worth it when we saw the smiles on their faces, as they had one of the best nights of their lives.
Sunday morning came along, and before church, she was baptized by Elder Colligan. Many members came, in spite of the cold, overcast morning. We got there at 6:30 AM to boil water, because the hot water in the font doesn't work. The baptismal service was excellent, many great talks. As she got out of the water, you could see the joy in her eyes and in her countenance. She was a new lady, clean and pure. To conclude the service, she bore her testimony. She talked about the lesson we had with her about a month ago, when after reading in Mormon 9, we asked her if she believed in miracles, and she said that she did. We then asked her what a few miracles would be, and she said 3 things: that her husband would go to church tomorrow, that they would get married, and that she would get baptized. As we now know, all 3 of those miracles have been accomplished. She then said in her testimony, "God showed me that day that miracles exist. I am going to keep working until one day he can be baptized and we can be sealed in the temple". The Spirit was strongly present. It is moments like these that make it all worth it.
I love my mission so much. I love being here, I don't want it to ever end. It is such a great experience, being so involved in such a divine work. I love the people that I serve here. I know that the things that are taught in the church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) are true, and I know that by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Love you all! Pray for us here. Until next week,
Elder Babcock