Well we are just about finishing up another week, and we ended May with a crazy last-minute baptism. Giovani and Javier (older brothers of Blanquita) got baptized on … Wednesday. We weren’t sure Giovani was ready (we didn’t have to teach Javier because he’s 8 yrs old and his parents are members so he just counts as a ward baptism instead of a mission one) before because… well, he’s 13yrs old and doesn’t like to listen to us that much unless his dad makes him. But our District Leader brought up a good point that it is the parent’s responsibility to get their kids to get baptized (see D&C 68), so we were like… yeah… that’s a good point…
And I also had him pray and ask if he should get baptized, and he said he felt weird and that a voice said, “Bautizete.” (Get baptized). So that made me feel better. It was sad because he is also afraid of water and he was almost crying before they baptized him. Did I tell you about Blanquita’s baptism?? I don’t remember if I did, but that was definitely the most stressful and longest baptismal service I’ve had…
But anyways, afterwards they asked him how he felt and he was like, “I was really scared…”
Hna Ellis: “And afterwards?”
Giovani: “Well, after I was happy.”
Javier: “I felt happy.”
Then he sat down.
We’re having a lot of drama with this family and poor, old Hna Betty (recent convert). They’re next door neighbors and Hna Betty and Blanquita are good friends, but apparently Hna Ortega doesn’t want to go to church because she feels uncomfortable with Hna Betty there because Hna Betty is jealous that we always go to visit Familia Ortega before her and Familia Ortega says that she was going to send one of the Ortega girls to take a voodoo doll to a witch, and the girl said she wouldn’t so Hna Betty got angry. (But I don’t believe that, I think people are just spreading rumors about Hna Betty being a witch because she’s a lonely, semi-cranky old lady). And anyways, Hna Betty was saying that Hermano Ortega tried to kill her (also not true, because… there would be no try. I’m sure he could do it if he really wanted too). And the bottom line is that people are very dramatic all over the world, but in Latin America they love to exaggerate and tell stories… a lot…
People will sit down and tell you a story for like a half hour or an hour straight… It’s very frustrating for me when I just want to teach them…
We are working with this single mother and her son Fernando. It’s our goal to baptize every week in June. How we gonna do that? I don’t know. But it’s fun to make crazy goals even though we don’t have any investigators with attendance still… But anyways, if you could pray for Hermano Ortega to find work, and Hermana Jeni, that would be greatly appreciated.
We’re hoping that Jenny and Fernando can get baptized this upcoming Sunday if they will go to church… Which I think they will. They’re having a hard time because Jenny’s ex-husband abandoned them and Hna Jenny doesn’t have work so they don’t have a lot to eat, and Hna Jenny is very depressed, but she’s starting to see the blessings already, I think, because the members here are great and they’ve been giving her and her sons food when they can.
Hna Jenny always says we’re like little angels that help her feel better. Apparently her sons keep saying that about us behind our backs too. It makes me feel awkward, but it’s nice of them to say so.
Please also keep Reina and Roxana in your prayers too. Our investigators almost always get attacted by their “friends” when they start listening to us, or shortly after they get baptized. Apparently Reina and Roxana’s college buddies are saying nasty things to them like saying swearword instead of “Mormon” when they bug them about reading the Book of Mormon.
Stupid kids.
Roxana was like, “I don’t care what they say. They’re ignorant. They just say things because they don’t know anything. It doesn’t matter to me.”
But you can tell that yes, it doesn affect her a bit too. Reina didn’t deny that she was feeling pretty crumby about it since they were supposedly her friends.
So I shared some of my favorite scriptures with them: see the beginning of D&C 121 and D&C122. No matter how you feel, those will help you feel better. 
Love you all,
Bekah