Robbed

I was robbed this week. Well, it's more like I left my water bottle in a public bathroom, and when we went back to find it, the woman working there told me that someone had taken it already. I haven't drunk water in 2 days.

ANYWAYS!! This week, I got to participate in an answer to one of my prayers. MANUEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!

Five months ago, Hermana Chavez and I got a little lost late one night as we were on our way back home. I was fairly new to the area, so I didn't know the safe/dangerous parts of it; however, on this specific night, it was clear we were not in the safe part of the area. And to make things worse, our phone was about to die.

While speed walking in a sketchy alley trying to return to our house before 10:15 pm, someone called, "Do you speak English?"

I turned around and could only see a woman in the distance yelling at us (in a language I didn't know) with blonde hair carrying big trash bags. Before we knew it, she began to run in our direction.

Thinking she was a crazy lady, I grabbed Hermana Chavez's hand, and we began to sprint home.

Fast forward one month after, Hermana Dos Santos and I were walking to lunch, and we saw someone cross the street looking like they were going to talk to us. I told Hermana Dos Santos that she seemed so familiar, but I didn't know from where. Then, the woman yelled, "Do you speak English?"

This time, I didn't sprint away in fear, hahaha, but instead, we began to talk to the woman.

Crazy enough, the woman, Rosita, is from Sweden and was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ. She married a man in the church; however, after many problems, they divorced, and she left the church.

Years later, she met and married a man named Manuel, who is Chilean but was adopted into a Swedish family as a baby.

By the time he was around 12 years old, he joined a gang in Sweden and, according to him, has made every mistake there is to make. However, while serving jail time, he found God and wanted to start over.

When he got out of jail and married Rosita, they both moved to Chile in search of the birth family of Manuel. When they found them, the family wanted nothing to do with Manuel, leaving them in a tricky economic position.

Finally, Rosita was able to find a job in Puente Alto where she could live in the house where she worked; however, Manuel had no job (because he doesn't speak Spanish and not a lot of English either), so he had been living in a homeless shelter in Santiago Centro.

After our conversation in the street with Rosita, Hermana Dos Santos and I weren’t 100% sure what would come of this interaction; however, when we showed up the following Saturday to our planned lesson in a park, both she and Manuel were seated ready to listen.

During the lesson, Manuel asked if he could be baptized, and Rosita said she wanted to become an active member so they could be married in the temple.

In the process of teaching Manuel, we found out he would have to get special permission from the First Presidency of the church after he had attended our church meetings every Sunday for three months (to show his genuine desire to repent).

He did so, and President Bohn called me this Thursday telling me Manuel can be baptized, and just like that, prayers were answered.

The baptism was just WOW, so beautiful, and such a testimony of the power of repentance.

This week, I read the talk "The Laborers in the Vineyard" by Elder Holland, and there is a part that reminded me of the conversion story of Manuel. Elder Holland said,

"It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines."

Alma the younger, who like Manuel had to pass through a thorough repentance process, explained his experience to his son by saying,

"Yea...that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea... that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy" (Alma 36:21).

Thanks to Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, Manuel could be born again as a new man IN Christ. He, too, could feel the "exquisite and sweet" joy that Alma the younger felt.

When I asked Manuel how he felt, he told me that "there are no words to explain how the joy I feel. Jesus is helping me forgive myself".

Highs:

-Manuel's baptism

-Manuel running behind us, trying to surprise us but actually scaring us so bad

-Rosita thought my name was legit hna Pickett (pronouncing hna the way it is written)

-All of the members are buying watermelon for us

-Learning from my companions

-Running in the morning and passing the time by making up general conference talks in my head

-Intercambio with Hermana de Paula 

-Marriage advice from President bahaha

-Elder Blake told me that Hermana Arne and I are on the same flight home #savinggrace

Lows:

-I don't have time to write the rest of my highs

Hermana Pickett