December 29, 2014

This has been the craziest week of my mission. We've had so many cool experiences, I just can't believe it all. Let's start with Christmas.

The branch from Los Uros has started coming to our casa capilla for their meetings, and last sunday a couple from their branch asked us if we could teach their 8 year old, Emerson, a little bit to help prepare him for his baptism. They also asked if one of us could baptize him, because his dad's excommunicated and can't do it himself. We set up citas with them for Tuesday and Wednesday, then on Thursday he was going to be baptized.

Tuesday was a fairly boring day. We had a couple citas with Emerson and Grover and we also met with a college kid named Jhon who wanted to talk to us because he's learning english.

Mamita's daughter came the day before Christmas Eve, and we spent most of the day on Christmas Eve helping them decorate the house. We put up the tree and the nativity and hung lights all over. After lunch we met with Emerson and got everything figured out for his baptism. He asked Elder Thompson to baptize him and we got permission from all of our leaders so everything was good to go. That night we were supposed to be in our room at 9:30, but Mamita had left so we still hadn't had dinner by then. They ended up getting home at like 10 and we called and told them we couldn't leave our room so they came up and brought dinner to us in there. We had fried rice and fruitcake, which apparently is a traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Weird. At midnight everybody in Puno launched fireworks off their roofs, which was super cool. We went out on the roof and just watched them for 20 minutes or so. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen, definitely puts the 4th of July to shame.

Christmas we left super early to go fill the baptismal font. We got the font all filled up, but we couldn't get the water heater thing to work, so the water was freezing. At 11 Emerson and his family started coming, and by 11:30 we were ready to start. Elder Thompson went to go change into his baptismal clothes but he had forgotten his pants, so we had to run back to the room to find them. We grabbed the pants, ran back to the church, and ended up meeting up with Gabriel, Elder Thompson's old mission leader from Juliaca. He had come down to lend us his web cam so we could skype with our families. The three of us went into the baptism and we got the service started but when it came time to actually baptize him, Emerson didn't want to do it. The water was so cold that he was scared to go into the font and started crying when he stepped in. His mom had to go talk to him for like 10 minutes to convince him that he could withstand the cold. We finally got him in the font, ready to go, but when Elder Thompson dunked him he freaked out and started splashing around trying to get out. It was really funny, I wish I had videotaped it. Afterwards, we were supposed to go to an orphanage and play with the kids, but the baptism ran long so we just called the zone leaders and told them we wouldn't be able to. We went back, ate lunch, talked with Gabriel and our families, and then the day was over. It flew by, I couldn't believe how fast it went. It was great talking to my family though, I'm so grateful we were able to do that.

On saturday we went to LOS UROS! Los Uros are these floating islands on Lake Titicaca where people live. They make the islands themselves out of reeds. It's super cool, and missionaries aren't allowed to go there normally so this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Emerson's family has their own island, and the whole zone went and helped them lift their houses. They start sinking, so they have to literally lift the entire house and put more reeds under it every 2 or 3 weeks. We were there for a few hours, then we came back to Puno and went to a wedding! There's a couple in our ward named Ines and Wilber, and they finally got married yesterday. They've wanted to for years, but now they finally have. I was so happy for them, and it was such a fun experience. Wilber's also going to get baptized this coming Saturday, since he finally got married. I'm so excited for them, they're doing a lot to come closer to The Lord.

Oh, and one last random story. This isn't the slightest bit spiritual or anything, I just thought it was funny. The bishop has a grandson named Brigham who's about 3 or 4 years old. He's like the cutest kid I've ever met, he's so funny. Anyway, the other day we were walking home and we saw Brigham and his Mom on the other side of the road. Brigham was peeing on the side of the road and when he saw us he waved and yelled "Elderes! Estoy haciendo piss!" Too funny.

Well, that was my week. Hope you guys all had a good Christmas. Talk to you all next week.