The family Barraza consists of
three: the mom Perla, the daughters Fatima and Mariel. The mom is divorced. Her ex-husband got married with a member and
then got baptized. Then the youngest got baptized (Mariel) then the ex-husband
told the wife about it and passed her the number of the missionaries. She
called the missionaries. It was right before I came.
She called and set up a visit. The
missionaries asked where she lived she said I will meet you at a gas station
and pick you guys up and take you there. So the missionaries started visiting
them and teaching. She told us that at first she never had a desire to get
baptized she just wanted us to talk to her daughter. But then we taught her the
plan of salvation and then it all clicked for her.
Perla has been inviting others to
come listen to us. The first week it was the daughter of her sister. She listened
and then came to church. The next week her sister came, listened (daughter
couldn’t because she had school) and she came to church. This last week the
sister came to church and brought her second daughter. Perla was talking to us
one day and said that her sister wants to get baptized and she is going to do
it whether her daughters follow her or not because she knows eventually they
too will follow.
This last week, Perla had told us
that she wanted to teach us a class based off of the homework we left. We
showed up on Monday and knocked on the door and she answered let us in and she
had a projector and had set up a power point and taught us an awesome lesson on
the word of wisdom. She made little bingo game and had treats. (she teaches
elementary school). Afterwards we ate a meal called moyetes (bread with
beans and cheese with salsa) and we talked then her sister came over and showed
us how to make flour tortillas and we made a bunch and they gave them to us to
take home.
Friday they called us and asked what
is the order of the baptism so they could make their own baptismal program.
On Saturday, we had scheduled the
baptism. We passed by in the morning because she wanted help making a bunch of
little sandwiches and hamburgers to bring to her baptism. She introduced us to
another friend who was going to come to the baptism. (Perla said she had tried
to share the church with her but she was pretty closed and said she only would
go to her baptism.)
Then in the afternoon they both got
baptized, Fatima is a singer and gave a special number on a primary song. On Sunday,
they got confirmed and to her confirmation they brought Perla’s sister and her
sister’s daughter.
The two daughters went to a class of
youth and the youth class is taught by this dude who is an ex-mission president
and ex-seventy now he is the director of institute.Hhe is a really good teacher
his name is Hermano Carlos. After the class, he talked to the Barraza family
about going to the temple this next week (they have to wait a year to do
endowments) they got that all organized and they should be going Friday. Then Hermano
Carlos talked to Fatima about seminary, and she is going to start going to that
every day at 5:30am. Perla then got signed up on the list of members to feed
the missionaries. This dude Carlos and the ward mission leader Barragan (the
husband of the lady you talk with on facebook) are really helping out in the
progress.
Transfers were actually yesterday. Today
we start a new cycle. We told the Barraza family that there was a chance that
we might get changed and they weren’t too happy. But my companion and I lucked
out and we didn’t have changes. We are both staying. In our zone, four people
had changes. We have a lot of people in our zone that are going to train, a lot
of newbies are coming. We will meet them today and the meeting at like 4.
This week finished out pretty hot,
but last Tuesday a cold front came in and we got some rain. That always makes
life interesting because you have to dodge all of the cars that pass or you get
drenched. I was on divisions with a new dude named Elder Aguilar from El Salvador
and we were walking by a busy road in the rain under my umbrella and a police
car came speeding by and we both hugged the wall and got on the opposite edge
of the sidewalk and the police car hit a bump and landed right in a puddle and
soaked us, got most of Elder Aguilar who had his mouth open (rookie mistake,
haha). The streets get crazy flooded because lack of drainage so there are
places that are just swamped.
When I was here last year with Elder
Neuman, we always went and worked with a member of the church a youth named Carlos.
He always helped us out. Well like 5 or 6 months ago he got his mission call
and headed out. His call was a special one because of medical issues he couldn’t
serve the full two years so he had a short term service, he got back just
barely and we got to talk. It was really cool because he thanked me on Sunday
for all that we had done for him this last year while we were there with
him.
Love Elder Blanchard
