11 Diciembre 2K

Dear Family,

Yeah, yeah, shouts out to my crew in da hood :P

Hi everyone! How's everything doing? Well, I pray. I'm pretty sure that this letter will be pretty short, seeing that we didn't get pouch last Tuesday. What happened is that the Zone Leader (who usually picks up the pouch from the office) and the vast majority of my zone (all but me, my comp, the 2 elders who live with us, and 2 in Moron) left at the crack of dawn Tuesday morning to go spend their entire P-Day (and a load of cash I might add) in this German Colony by Caracas called Colonia Tovar, thus forfeiting the opportunity to get pouch, and leaving the zone pouchless.

This week wasn't really a spectacular one but there were a few highlights that I'll cover. First, this week my comp and I had the chance and privilege to give a blessing of counsel to Lidio Vasquez, our ward's Mission Leader. He's a young, vibrant, spiritual guy of 25 who served a mission in the Barcelona Mission. And right now he's really struggling to find any type of work, to magnify his calling, and progress towards the celestial kingdom. He's going to be sealed in the Caracas Temple this week (if things go as expected) to his girlfriend of 3 weeks. So he's been feeling a ton of pressure and that night it just so happened that as my comp and I were walking home he drove by in his car (actually, the car is borrowed) and asked us to give him a priesthood blessing when we got in. The blessing went great, fortifying once more my testimony about the priesthood and it's blessings that we can receive from it.

The other thing that stands out in my mind about this past week was the baptism that we had yesterday - the largest baptism, as far as assistance, in the history of the church here in Puerto Cabello (more than 10 years). No one told me that it was the largest, but I assume so - we filled the Sacrament Room with more than 100 people! We held it directly after the block, at 12:30, because Hermana Blanca, one of the 2 who were to be baptized this day, was only able to do it this day. The other to be baptized, a teen of 14 named Kirber Urbina, has been coming to church now for more than 6 months, along with his 8 year old brother Jordany, Kirber's been through 3 previous pairs of elders and hasn't been baptized until now because of his young age and fears of going inactive without having any member support from anyone in his family His family in this matter really puzzles me, especially his mother. They don't have a problem with his going to church on Sundays with his brother, but that's exactly it - they couldn't care less. If I had a 14 and 8 year old who both woke up early and bathed and dressed themselves and left before 9:00 a.m. every Sunday for more than 6 months without any motivation but personal, I personally as a parent of them would be extremely grateful. Especially here in Venezuela, where there are so many other things that a 14 or an 8 year old kid could do Sundays other than go to church. Jordany wasn't able to be baptized because the family of his dad (stepdad of Kirber) wants him to do the first communion right now (and they also say that they want to wait until "he can make his own decisions," but how nice of them to choose for him that he's going to do the first communion in a church he doesn't even go to), but they still won't prohibit him from attending the LDS church. They got to know the church because their next door neighbors are super active members, who first introduced them to the gospel by inviting them to a FHE, but during the past few months it was looking as if they were never going to allow Kirber to get baptized (for a few years at least) so this baptism was a pleasant surprise for this family. It also turns out that Blanca, the other to be baptized, is the mother of the wife of this family. She listened to the charlas when Racquel, her daughter and the wife in this family who helped Kirber, got baptized, about 4 years ago. Blanca accepted it all but for some reason didn't get baptized. Since then she's done her genealogy work, read the Book of Mormon more than 3 times, written summaries of the B. of M., gone to church, went to the temple open house, etc. - basically a "dry mormon" - just add water. And since then, Racquel's been praying and fasting that her mother be baptized. When my comp and I first set the first date to teach Blanca the 1st Charla, we told Racquel who didn't actually seem that surprised. Apparently it was the 4th time that she would be listening to the charlas (all the way through). It was the first charla where we set a baptisimal date - she was waiting to get baptized by Juan Pereira, who wasn't able to earlier because he was under surgery. But when we set the date with her, she asked us to keep it a secret from Racquel! And as quickly as news like this spreads in the church, everyone in the ward BUT Racquel knew by the Sunday of her baptism. So at 11:30 Sunday afternoon, Racquel . . .

Ooops, I have to go. Stay tuned till next week!

Love, Nick