Viridiana's Baptism

Well this week was awesome. We had a lot happen and had the best thing happen as well. We brought someone into the waters of baptism! This was also the most stressful week ever with planning the baptism. Never have I had a more difficult time working around people's schedules and making sure there were going to be people at the baptism, and fellowshipers and all that. But it turned out all okay and everything was magical.

Monday after pday we had a dinner with a less active member family whose mom is in the hospital. We didn't know she was in the hospital, she had been in there before, but then she had gotten released, but then she took a turn for the worst and was put back in. The following day she was going to have surgery. So they enlisted our help for a priesthood blessing and we went over to the hospital and gave it to her. She was saying how she was going to cancel the surgery if we did not come, which was quite the show of faith. We then talked for a little while and left.

Tuesday we had district council in the morning and that went well. Afterwards the senior couple took us out to eat at waffle house. Then we had baptism planning with the ward mission leader. Then we heard the results of the surgery and it went textbook perfect according to the surgeon. Could not have gone any better. So that was really cool to see. At night we were taken out with the elders quorum president and we went and saw Veronica, the less active we knocked into last week or 2 weeks ago, and we kinda made an acción plan with her and discussed what we need to do to get her back to church and her son and husband interested. After that we had English class and president kunzler had a lot of fun there because all our students are Venezuelan and he served his mission there and was really able to connect with everyone there.

Wednesday not much happened but Viridiana had her baptismal interview and passed with flying colors then we had a priest come out with us to a lesson with William which went really. The only thing holding that guy back is church attendance. So hopefully we can boost that up somehow.

Thursday I can remember what happened.

Friday we had to go down to the very edge of the zone to interview someone the ysa missionaries are teaching for baptism. So we got a ride with a senior couple and drove an hour until we got there, interviewed him, passed him, and then got some Sonic slushes and came all the way back up. Then not much else happened the rest of the week.

Saturday was the day of the baptism. We did some things in the morning to prepare for it and went over to the church and set it all up. Viridiana chose me to baptize her so I practiced the prayer over and over. Finally they got there and a bunch of other members showed up and the baptism went under way. It all went very good, the spirit was super there and it was probably the most touching experience of my mission. Seeing how happy she was afterwards was such a special experience. She was informally

welcomed into young woman and got one of those young women necklaces and she loved that, wore it to church the next day and everything. We had treats afterwards and everything and then it was all over and we were just floating on clouds the rest of the day.

Sunday we had church and she was confirmed that day. Also such a special experience. We had a good rest of church, I translated in relief society this time and had a fun time with that. We also had a lesson with the salinas family as well. That went really well - taught them the restoration and they are super excited to read the book of mormon. They also expressed quite the desire to go to church, but they don't have a car. They were quite excited when we told them there are many people who can give them a ride. So we are expecting them next week. Then we also had a chat with someone we knocked into a long time ago that had missionaries over almost everyday about 3 years ago. But when the Spanish missionaries were removed from the area they wondered why they weren't seeing them anymore. We tried going back every week but always just missed them until yesterday when we finally ran into them and talked for a while and set up a lesson on Wednesday. If it happens then that would be a family of 5 all baptismal age that we would be teaching. We also had a mini lesson with Debra that day about why evil exists on the earth. Then we had to go back home for call ins and that was that day.

That was all that happened this week. The baptism was definitely the highlight. It felt so good to finally have our work pay off and see someone take that next step on life.

Love you all,

Elder Bertoch 

The Lockdown

It’s a short one from Jackson this week.  It’s exciting he has a baptism scheduled for this Saturday.  It sounds like they weren’t affected by the hurricane at all where he is though, except they had to be on lockdown.  I asked him why he played with a jar of mayo instead of the board games he has, but he said they played those too.

Okay so this week was interesting. We had a couple of cool things happen but not much really happened. Monday we had a lesson with sixto and Bibiana. Bibiana wants more time to think about the marriage so she fell off date but viridriana is still on date for this Saturday and we have everything set up and in place and she is super excited. Tuesday we didn't have much happen except for English class. Wednesday we had a lesson with William which went really well. Thursday we had English class. 

Friday was the day the hurricane hit but as a category 2 and not expected to hit us so we were super disappointed. At night we went on lockdown and we had other elders come and stay with us. Then Saturday was a full lockdown day and I slowly went crazy since we couldnt leave the apartment even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Then Sunday we had permission to go to church, and then we immediately went on lockdown again. That was the most boring time I have had by far. Nothing happened and all of us slowly went crazy. It was barely raining and barely blowing wind. At one time we started playing hot potato with a jar of mayonnaise. Super boring. So today we made up for it by going to gravitopia, a trampoline park, to get our energy out.

That's all that happened hopefully next week will be more exciting. 

Elder Bertoch 

Hurricane Florence

Yes, there is a hurricane headed his way.  The mission president is keeping us up to date on Facebook.  Today they evacuated the missionaries who are on the coast to Columbia.  They said it was slow going because of the traffic, but they should all be there by now.  Jackson is in Greenville which is farther inland than Columbia, so he is staying put.  But he can expect a lot of rain during the next few days.  He may have a lot of opportunities for service as well.

Hey Family,

Life here in Greenville has been really good. Our people that we are
teaching are progressing really well, and many miracles have taken
place that have been really neat. This past week we have ramped up our
english class attendance and have been getting around 8 there each
day. Bibiana and Viridiana are excited for their date for the 22nd,
and things seem really promising and not much is really holding them
back, except for the fact that they still have to get married. 

William our other really promising person is doing really well too. He has
read most of the BoM and is getting into D&C now. He really likes all
that we teach him and we're hoping to put him on date this week.
Yesterday we had a cool miracle where we were knocking in a trailer
park and the last door that we knocked just so happened to be a woman
that was baptized 15 years ago in Mexico and she had just finished
saying a prayer asking God to send someone to her that can help her
regain that relation with Him and know where to go to church and get
her son active in the church too. And then right after that we knocked on
her door and told her about the church here and invited her to come
and we met her son and husband and now we have another family that will
be coming to church here too.

The big news this week of course is the hurricane barreling towards
south carolina. We got word today that two zones will be evacuated
since it has ramped up to category 4. A lot of damage is to be
expected. Apparently up here after every hurricane tornadoes come and
rip up the upstate. So we have that to look forward to as well as
buckets of rain. So we are going to have a lot of fun this next week.

That about does it. Not much else to report on. We did have zone
conference this week which was good. But besides that not much else
happened.

Love y'all

Elder Bertoch

Hiking Photos

We didn't get a written e-mail this week because Jackson and his companion went for a hike, but we received photos.  The hike was 7 miles with a 2000 elevation gain called Table Rock: