Week 13 - I'm pretty sure I witnessed a miracle

Doctrine & Covenants 18:15 has been the only scripture on my mind until now. And I did not know or understand what it meant until two days ago. I got to participate in my first baptismal service! It was so incredible!! Her name is N**** and she has been working with the missionaries and been going to church for a really long time but has never wanted to get baptized. She had a super strong testimony but for some reason just didn't want to take that step. When I got here she was one of my first appointments and so we started working with her and we felt like the best thing to do was to just be her friend. She ended up opening up to us and sharing a lot of things and a lot of her concerns but ultimately made the decision that she wanted to be baptized! And then even more, she asked me to baptize her!!! Of course I accepted but I was freaking out because I had never done that before let alone in Spanish! I didn't even know what I was supposed to say in Spanish!!

We had to go prepare the font for baptism and apparently the ward I am in hasn't had a baptism for a while so we had to completely clean out the font because it was nasty. We told her to get there early so we could get changed and take pictures and all that good stuff. We got there around 5:45 and she wasn't there. So we waited, and waited. And finally around 6:20 she showed up. It actually wasn't that bad because apparently a lot of the sisters in the ward don't have a lot of priesthood holders in their lives so when the ward has a baptism a bunch of people show up and ask for blessings. So before we had the service we gave like 4 different blessings but luckily Elder M**** knew I was scared to death to give a blessing so he let me just assist for all of them.

Quick side note about one of the blessings. It was this old lady who looked super sick and came hobbling up to us really slowly and asked up for a blessing. We went in and had to help her into the chair and everything and I felt super bad for her like she could have called us and we could have gone to her house. I felt bad that she came all the way to the church. So we go on with the blessing and Elder M**** gives a wonderful blessing in which we could feel the spirit so strong. Apparently so could she because as soon as we said "amen" she jumped up out of the chair (literally) shook both of our hands and strolled out the door laughing and smiling so I'm pretty sure I witnessed a miracle there.

Anyways back to the story. So N**** finally showed up and we got dressed super quick and she was sooo nervous. We tried to ask her why but she just didn't know. All she said is she was just very nervous. But it's okay because I was kinda freaking out too. But the service actually ended up being beautiful and the spirit was so strong there.

I can't even describe the feeling when the guy said it was time to proceed with the baptism. My heart was pounding as I went first into the font (there is only one door into our font) and she followed and then she looked up at me and was like "hey so what is going to happen (in spanish obviously)" and tried to explain it but I'm not sure how well she understood. I ended up just telling her "when I say amen, bend your knees" and I could tell she was nervous because she was cutting off the circulation in my hand from holding my wrist so tight. So I start saying what I need to (I learned what to say barely) but when I got to the part where I say "en el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Esp..." at this point she flings herself backwards and I freak out because I haven't finished yet so I am literally holding her up and the end of the prayer turns into "yelEspírituSantoamen" super fast and then baptize her.

The interesting thing is the moment she came out of the water I could tell that all of her worries were gone, as well as mine. Before both of us were feeling really nervous and now, I could tell that we felt nothing but pure joy.

I share that scripture in the beginning because I didn't know how true it was and what pure joy felt like until I got to help bring one soul unto Christ. It is a joy that I can't quite explain but it is something that I am still feeling today. It is something that I don't want to go away so now I have to focus on the next verse and work on bringing many souls unto Christ.

The only other thing I want to share because it was awesome is I cut down a giant mango tree this week with a machete! It was for service and it took foreverrrrr and my hands hurt so bad but it was awesome!!! Also mom asked me a while ago if we could eat at members houses and here in this area we can a lot more! The problem is the power goes out a lot and most of our dinner appointments are at night when it is dark so most of the time all the food only tastes like skittles (sorry for everyone who isn't in my family and doesn't get that inside joke).

But anyways I love you all so much and am always thinking and praying for you!!

Have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

The first baptismal service I got to participate in on my mission. It was so amazing.