Hello to one and all! Today is a glorious day! Why? Guess who helped bring in 3 new converts to the church? HAHA! I`m attaching photos of the glorious event! But first, I`d like to say thanks to Eli, Chantel, Mom, Dad, Patti, and Grandma & Grandpa Sanders for all of your wonderful letters, they were quite the surprise. And: Chantel is 21?! Meghan is in the MTC?! Tristian is a `huge ham`? What glorious events!
And now, I shall recount the event that was Saturday: First off, we had 3 people planned for baptism at 3 PM: G, T, and her neice H Gon and T were good to go, but apparently we never quite got the written permission of her mom for baptism, so we went in the morning to quite literally teach/convince her enough to let her daughter get permission. (without going into details, the mom is a crusty lady). But! It worked out, although Heidi had a huge fear of all the people watching her, so we scheduled a baptismal service at 8:00 for just her and her family. We were over there for over 2 hours, and needed to run over to the church to start filing the font. We got there at about 12:40, and turned on the water. At 2:30, we returned to start setting up. And to our horror.. the water was only 1/3 full! Frantically, we started hauling buckets of water from the underground resevoir of the church, and soon enough, people started showing up. But, the great thing was, everyone started helping us, even the some of investigators showed up and started to help too! Synergy!
So, we were able to fill it quickly, and although it was cold, it was ready. Everyone arrived, and we started the service. G`s friend baptized him, and I baptized T. YAAHH!!! The service soon ended, and as we were closing up, we learned that while I was baptizing T, beforehand she misunderstood us and didn`t give me her full name, (which you NEED to recite in the baptismal prayer for it to be valid), so... technically... it was invalid! ACK!!! So, we quickly planned to re-do it later in the night when we were going to baptize H So, by the end of the night, everything worked out, we figured out how to make the water warm again, and we had 3 baptisms. The next day at church, Elder Gomez confirmed G, I confirmed T, and our bishop confirmed H. It was a Great Weekend.
And how can you top off the perfect baptismal Sunday? A surprise THANKSGIVING DINNER from our Mamita, that`s what! Turkey, potatoe balls, and more rice than should ever had entered my plate. But I was SO thankful. And yes, while carving the turkey, I did feel a pang of sorrow that my family was about a continent and a half away. But, I shall remember you all!
Well, I shall be sure to share any other Thanksgiving stories this Thursday, and wish you all a very happy Dia de gratitud.
-And while I have time, question answering session!-
-our area is good, we`ve been avoiding anything potentially dangerous, our families are well, and we should have a couple more this Saturday for baptism!
- For the Christmas package, I can`t say there`s anything else that I need, just the peachios, Trafalga T, and... LEGOS! Well, I also need to start trying to get presents for my friends, so I`ll write you next week if I need you to send anything. (I`ll probably do something for Brandon & Erik, and see if I can do anything for the family. I know sending packages here is UBSURDly expensive, and I still need to find a place close to my house that I can send it from)
-OH, for light and gas, the owners of the building pay the big bills, and divide the pay out between those who live there.
And: my address:
Ecuador Quito Mission
Calle Robles 640 y Amazonas
Quito, Ecuador
Well, I believe that is all. See ya later!
-Elder Sanders
PS- congrats to David Tolman on his gloriousl re-entry
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