Hermana Parks in Peru: Week 69: Francisco´s baptism!

This email should really be titled: Baptismal services gone wrong.

Lessons learned….

1. When you get to the chapel at 6:30pm and see the Elders running around without ties hauling buckets of water, it probably means that something went wrong with the baptismal font and it´s gonna be a long night…. (la bomba, I don´t know what that is in English, broke and there was no water pressure so there was no way to fill the font other than with buckets!)

2. You can judge the helpfulness of your ward by calling literally every member and leader on your contacts list and after explaining the situation, get answers like ¨Just try not to ruin anything¨ and ¨We can´t help, we´re at the stake dance¨

3. You might not realize just how deep the ground water tank is until your zone leaders drop their phone into it... and after a thorough assessment by 6 foot-5 Elder Holt, you judge it´s best not to lower down Elder Ballero to fish it out.

4. Never plan a musical number the day-of when your comp insists that she does not want to participate and cannot do the soprano part.... because when you accidentally start on a note that is too high, you will probably end up LAUGHING IN THE MIDDLE OF IT in front of your investigator who is about to be baptized and a bunch of members who were not amused...

5. If the person being baptized is over 70 and you have a limited depth of water to work with, you should probably have someone baptize him who is under 70, or else there may be a few re-do´s and near drowning...

6. After all the chaos has subdued and the reverence of the night has been saved by member testimonies and positivity of your investigator, DO NOT let the Elders try to fix la bomba, because they will probably end up breaking it and flooding the street...

And that´s a wrap! Oh my goodness, it was an adventure to say the least. We sacrificed a cell phone, the chapel´s water system, and our dignity (literally Hna Kelley and I will never sing in public again), but Francisco was baptized! Luckily he was SO positive and understanding about the whole fiasco... He bore a great testimony during the service. We just love our querido Francisco! It´s crazy to think that just 6 weeks ago Hna Kelley and I were knocking on doors on a quiet street when we met a bright-eyed old man eager to receive the restored gospel. It´s been a joy watching his journey.

Have I ever mentioned that Francisco has TWELVE kids? Yes, 12. We were able to teach one of his daughters, Gladys and grandaughter, Danika, yesterday and they already accepted a baptismal date and want to come to church! WHY didn´t we ask him for references sooner? I never realized that one of his daughters lived just around the block from him..

Speaking of miracles, 100% of the new investigators we found this week were from member references! Miracles do happen. And Jorge Enrique (the menos activo I talked about a week or two ago) came to church with his son! Jorge hadn´t been to church in like... 7 years. It is never ever too late to come back to the fold.

Anddd, leadership council was awesome. I felt really good about my part -- I taught on how to prepare to teach investigators! Sometimes we get comfortable and in the ¨routine¨ of teaching the lessons and we forget to make specific plans for our investigators according to their needs. I definitely learned a lot while planning it!

Rest assured that all our upcoming baptismal services will be better than the last :)

Love you guys!

Hermana Parks

Nuestro querido Francisco!

I promise he´s a happy guy, peruvians just don´t smile!

My agenda front and back cover... we always make covers for them at the beginning of the transfer. I love this scripture from corinthians.

And.... out with the old! These shoes were dead a while ago...

a few pics from leadership council!

when we are realllyyyy tired and start to give each other ugly hair-do´s....

Hna Kelley and I have laughed out loud too many times over this pic.... we seriously did not plan to match that day and definitely didn´t plan to be in the SAME position for the zone picture... too funny.