Week 12: My First Baptisms!

Guess what......... I HAD MY FIRST 2 BAPTISMS THIS PAST WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Juan and Celines were baptized on Saturday and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I honestly can't even describe how it feels, to see someone accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to make that covenant. AH!! The church is true!!!! I wish all of you could get to know them, they are SO great!! The week was kind of crazy helping them prepare and working with the ward to have a baptism, but the Lord was definitely in charge, and now they are both members of the church!! I just can't thank Heavenly Father enough for giving me and my companion the opportunity to teach them and to see how the Gospel changes lives. Later that night after the baptism, Celines called us to tell us how great she feels and that at the moment she was reading the Book of Mormon!! Ahhh my heart melted!!! She is seriously such a sweetheart. And it's so awesome too because her dad has a hard time seeing, so she reads to him from the Book of Mormon every day. These 2 are such gems! And their confirmation was so special too, they were both completely elated after they received the Holy Ghost, and both of them explained how they could feel it so powerfully. What an awesome weekend it was for sure here in San Sebastian!!! 

So this week we received a call from a lady who lives right next to one of our investigators and she said that she wanted us to come visit her!! Haha ok? We thought it was a lady that we have talked to several times who lives across the street from our investigator, but when we went to her house she said that she didn't call us! Haha umm alright? So she told us to walk down the street to another house where this lady lived, and ask her. So we did, and it turns out she's the one that called us! And we didn't even know her!! She is an older lady who lives by herself and someone had told her that the missionaries would come visit her so she called us!! Hahaha she is so awesome!! She is Catholic but she says that a lot of her extended family is Mormon..... :) YES! Haha so we are definitely going to work hard with her! And it was so funny because when we started sharing our little message she looked at me and said, I don't even know where but I really think I've seen you before! You just have that familiar face!! Hahaha so Hna Sosa told her that we were probably all best friends in the Premortal life hahaha great way to start a lesson right??

 So this last Pday one of the ladies in our ward took us hiking to some underground caves!! SO cool!! We had to hike about an hour or so to the first one which was a bit smaller and you actually had to slide down into a little hole to get inside!! Haha when I first looked at it I thought, no way. I'm not doing it!! But I'm so glad I did!! Haha and it seriously was like a Harry Potter moment, it looks so small from the outside and then you get in and it's HUGE!! The other one was absolutely massive and went super far back into the mountain!! I have a couple pictures so I'll try and send those.  

This week was a little rough for some of our other investigators though, it's hard when they don't keep commitments! The family with the teenage kids, the kids always happen to be gone when we have an appointment, and when they are there, they don't stay the whole lesson. It's a bit hard, but, we keep working with them! Always follow up, right?! But the Lord always blesses us with tender moments too! We taught our other family this week too, the family with 4 little kids, and the first miracle was, her boyfriend actually joined us for the lesson!!! Woo!! Baby steps!! So we took the opportunity and talked about the family and then all of the sudden, out of the blue, my companion starts talking about the law of chastity!!! Hahaha which is good but I had no idea!! So I let her do her thing (she is such an amazing and bold missionary) and they actually took it alright and they want to talk about what they want to do! So we'll see when we visit them this week! But it was so cute because we asked if we could do a kneeling prayer, so all 4 little kids and those parents knelt down with us in a circle and I was the one who got to say the prayer!! It was such an awesome moment!! Really, the mom has SUCH a desire to know and to change, we are just praying for her boyfriend to feel the same way.  

One of my funny moments this week, we were at Juan and Celines's house and we were just talking when all of the sudden I see this HUGE tarantula out of the corner of my eye!!!!! Luckily it was on the other side of the room but I about lost it!! Haha spiders are really my biggest fear!! Literally the whole time I kept eyeing it, scared that if I turned for a second it would jump off the wall and attack me hahaha but guess what happened!! So we had to say the prayer and I don't think I've ever been more scared during a prayer hahahaha but guess what happened when I opened my eyes?? It was GONE!!!! Yeah, I kinda freaked out a little hahaha but it's all good! 

Hna Sosa and I have been studying prayer this week and man, I am SO glad we did!! Wow, prayer is absolutely amazing!! We have the opportunity WHENEVER we want, to talk to the most powerful being, our Heavenly Father. How incredible!! But more than that, we studied how we need to pray. I wish I wrote down the quote but President Hinckly said in Preach My Gospel that a lot of people treat prayer as if they are calling a store and ordering groceries, that we are not putting actual effort in. Wow, bold right? But it really made me think, how am I saying my prayers? Am I really being sincere? Am I really thanking Him enough? Or am I just asking and asking and asking and that's it? And something that I absolutely LOVE in Preach My Gospel is that it says that we need to pray with real intent, meaning that we are COMMITTED to act upon the answers and impressions we receive. WOW! Think about that. When we ask for something, are we just asking and expecting it to happen? Or are we actually doing something about it? Remember faith without works is dead, and that when we press forward and show Heavenly Father that we are ready to act, He is then able to guide us. How grateful I am for the experiences I've had this week!! And especially for the opportunity I've had to try and pray ever so sincerely. It's powerful, I testify of that!! 

Well, until next week! The Spanish is still coming slowly but surely haha. And it kind of stinks because now that we are at the end of a transfer (oh my goodness I've finished my first transfer!!!!) I'm no longer the newbie missionary! Hahaha I have no excuse!! Haha no just kidding, but really! Everyday I think I improve a little bit more, but I still have a long way to go!! Have a great week everyone!!!  

Love, 

Hermana Holt

2 months down 

 our investigator's 100 year old dad

our backyard friend

Hermana Sosa's amazing food               baptism invite

Celines

baptism of Juan and Celines

 the sister's with Juan and Celines

CCM sisters

Holt, Gallardo, VanKammen, Madrigal, Partridge

 Elder Zwick's son spoke at our conference

one hour hike to the caves

looks tiny

bigger than I thought    

                                     

 I made it

I'm a missionary

Mayaguez Stake Center

scary bridge that moves when you walk on it

Crazy rain                                                 Let it rain 

my zone

beauty in the front

crazy fast driving and terror in the back

our mission leader's large turtles

holding it in my white skirt