Week 48: Two 6'5 blonde gringos, miracle baptism

Monday, Aug. 12, 2024

Que tal yall! 

Holy cow this was a Jam packed week. 

First off: shoutout to my sister Millie for her baptism and my dad for his birthday! I love you guys so much!

On Thursday we pull up to cambios and I had no idea what was gonna happen...

Well I am now with Elder Skinner! He is also 6'5, a gringo, and blonde! Literally the two tallest missionaries in the mission! And probably the two tallest humans in all of Cochabamba right now jaja! 

We are also opening up a new zone as the zone leaders. He has been a zone leader for several transfers so it's awesome to be able to learn from him! 

It's been awesome working with Elder Skinner! He's a great missionary and super funny. We are working really hard and seeing a ton of miracles already! 

One of these miracles was our friend Antuanet. I have been teaching her my whole time here in Esmeralda. She has come to church every week since she started meeting with us and has just been doing so well. She's been going to the YSA activities and had a strong desire to be baptized. 

This last week she stopped responding to our messages and we were getting really worried that she wouldn't be able to get baptized this last week. Then on Friday night, we were in the middle of contacting members and we get a span of texts from Antuanet. She had a really hard week and some really hard things happened in her life. She told us that she was sorry for not responding but still wanted to get baptized! 

We got to work and coordinated everything with less than 24 hours to plan. The ward helped us out with the planning and we were all ready to go. We had to clean the chapel and have the other ward pause the music for the fiesta that they were having.... 

But Antuanet was baptized! Truly a miracle. It was a very special service and she bore a very powerful testimony. It was so awesome to have the blessing of being apart of.

I am so happy that my sister Millie and Antuanet were able to make this covenant with god this week. It was a tender experience for me because while I was really missing being at my sister's baptism and hanging out with my dad on his birthday, Auntunet's baptism helped me remember my sister and my dad and family and just be happy to know that i'm able to be an instrument in Gods hands to bring others unto christ and experience the same blessings that me and my family have with our covenants with heavenly father and Jesus Christ.

I am so grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that allows us to make these covenants with our Heavenly Father and have true joy. I know that Christ lives, that this is his church and because of him, we can have eternal joy. 

Love,

Élder Richards 

Ps: I am so sorry, we were so busy today and I literally didn't respond to anyone. Thats my bad. And there are some of you who I still haven't replied to for a while now and I'm so sorry! I will get on that asap! But I really appreciate every email and text and voice message! I truly do and I love you guys!