Hermana in Houston: Week 34: Another baptism!

hoooooola!

This week was the one year mark since I got my mission call! Crazy!

It was such a good week! I LOVE being a missionary! I LOVE Louetta! I LOVE my companion!!!

This week we had Zone Conference. AHHH!!! It was unreal. I literally couldn't take notes fast enough during President's lesson. I LEARNED SO MUCH. Mind blown. Then we practiced teaching for an hour and a half. We're trying a new method of teaching and it is hard hard hard! But as we've applied it this week we have seen so many miracles!

F was baptized this week! YAY! Although the service was an kind of, sort of, an absolute disaster, we did our part, and he made a covenant with God, and that's all that matters. :) It was so sweet to see his little boys pushing their noses against the glass to watch him be baptized. F's baptism was years and years in the making, and it was such a blessing to be here to help him reach that goal and get those blessings.

Excerpt from Courtney's companion's (Hermana Miller) letter about the baptism this week:

Well the highlight of this week was..

FRANCISCO SE BAUTISO!!!

AYYAYAYAYAY ARRRRRIIIIIBBAAAAAAA!!!!!! <------ (I think that means "Hallelujah" in Spanish. Honestly that's probably what everyone was shouting in heaven. Guaranteed.)

It was so fun and so awesome. It's funny because we've been planning this baptism since last week and making sure everything was perfect. We were so excited because last week we were sure we were going to beat the odds and actually have a non-stressful baptism where everything goes according to plan. Well, it was a good thought. And just like life itself, when you think you're doing great, everything seems to go wrong. Its a blessing and a curse - blessing because you learn and grow and curse because its the worst thing everrrrr. Anyways, everything was set perfect until about 2 hours before the baptism. First, our pianist canceled. Now, for all of us Utah Mormons, that would not seem like a big deal at all. Just walk next door and ask your neighbor right? Wrong. Virtually no one in the ward plays the piano except for that one person who canceled. And neither do the missionaries. Ahh!! But then, I remembered that my grandma taught me to play the piano and I happen to know how to read the notes. So guess who was assigned to play the piano? Yup. It was a struggle. And then, we didnt have enough miles to drive all the way to the church so we called our ward mission leader for a ride and he said he would be there at 5:45 - well at around 615, his wife shows up to take us. My nerves are a little on edge at this point, but I'm like "Please, I can do this. Put together a baptism in half hour? Give me a challenge!" and we pile into the car. Weeelllllllllllll maybe it wasnt the best thing to ask for haha. Fastforward to 35 minutes and 10 miles later.... we arrive at the chapel. At 6:50, and the baptism is at 7. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Well the good news is, we actually got everything ready by 7. (Thanks to the Elders filling up the font) Everyone important is there - us, ward mission leader, bishopric, and Francisco. Bad news... we're in a Hispanic ward and 7 actually means come at 720. So we all sat in our seats for a while until people finnnalllly came. Honestly there's like this '20 minutes late' trend with hispanics - 20 minutes after something is supposed to start, they all rush in at the same time. It's so weird. Well then, we have everyone there except for Carol - Francisco's girlfriend/basically-wife/mother of his children. I'm going to save you the pain of what happened next so fast forward to 8:30... THE FIRST COUNSELOR IS STILL GIVING HIS TALK AND NO ONE IS BAPTIZED YET. Yup, he gave a 45 minute talk. But I mean, at least it was less that 50 minutes right? Yeah. Thats the first thing that came to my mind too. Somewhere in that hour, Hna Hoj showed up to play the piano for the rest of the night (Ayayaya Arrriiibaaaa [see above] ) Well, then Francisco was finally baptized. And it was the most beautiful and flawless baptism I've seen in my life. It felt like it was in slow motion. Francisco came out of the water, opened his eyes, and smiled so big. And then he and Hno Brooks hugged eachother. Oh my heck so precious. SO worth it. And from that point on, all was well in Zion. And me and Hna McOmber slept soooooo well that night. (:

Rest of Courtney's letter:

One night we were teaching one of our potentials outside his apartment when his roommate S came out and said, "I need a Book of Mormon!" After a few seconds the shock wore off and we were able to stumble out, "We'll get you one right now!" So we ran to the car and got him one, and asked him how he knew about the BOM. He said that we had met him one day in passing and had given him a Restoration pamphlet. He said that he read it and felt something so beautiful and knew that he needed to read the BOM. New investigator!

My favorite miracle of this week: My second transfer in the mission I met a recent convert named Jenny at a wedding in the Woodlands ward. She really wanted me to come visit her, but she lived out of my area! I sent her info to the sisters in that area but they never visited her. Yesterday Bishop Martinez in consejo de barrio gave me her info and assigned me to visit her! I'VE BEEN TRANSFERRED IN TO HER AREA! I had no idea! Ahhh! The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I love being part of the work.

Funnies of the Week:

A guy asked us if he could buy us drinks. It was so hot and humid Hermana almost said yes, until I reminded her what kind of drinks he was talking about.

Everyone here thinks I'm Hermana Hoj! I have to reintroduce myself to everyone over and over!

Pulled into our member's neighborhood for a dinner appointment to find 10 squad cars and a low flying helicopter tearing apart the block for a shooter with a machine gun. Welcome to Houston!

Drove past a woman pruning her tree with a sword. Literally.

The Church is true! The book is blue!

Hermana McOmber