Thursday, March 26, 2015

Baptism!

This week has been hard. I was surprised at how much I was effected by the heat, study, and contacting. We had a day this week, i can´t remember which one, where we didn't talk to a single person because they either weren't home or they were ¨busy¨. All we could do was shake it off and move on to the next one, which frustrated me even more! 
Elder Zepeda left to the Guatemala mtc on Wednesday so since then it has just been me and elder Merlos. He is a cool guy but I noticed that he talks a lot about himself and talks a lot about all that he has learned. Its good to know that everyone learns a lot but sometimes I just want to talk about me. I know I'm selfish sometimes so I think this will be a good lesson. I think its normal to get irritated with our companions. I think there's a lesson to be learned for me as well. Since Elder Zepeda left we spent some time organizing our house. 
We ran into a little girl from the Bordo community. Bordo is all the houses by the river that are built with sheets of metal, very very poor area. A 6 year old girl came up to us. She looked so hungry and smaller than a 6 year old girl should look. She told me my eyes were pretty and said she was in our part of town because she had to buy lemons for her family. So we gave her a few limps and she ran away. When she got about half way down the street she waved at us and we waved back. This impacted me a lot and I don't know why. She was a happy little girl.
While there were a lot of things about this week that I wish I could change and wish they went better, Saturday was Miriam Rivera´s baptism! She is my first baptism. If you want to get technical Elder Merlos did the actual baptism. But Yesterday on Sunday before we entered the chapel for Sacrament Meeting, we asked her who she wanted to do her confirmation. She pointed to me and asked if I could. I was shocked! She knew I was terrible at speaking Spanish. I had the Bishop, Bishop Santos, hold the manual that has the prayer in it. I kept it short and sweet because I didn't know all what to say. I said ¨Miriam, Dios Te ama, y bendice su familia y su casa, siempre recurda, Dios Te ama¨. I felt bad because it was so short but I am thankful that she trusted me enough to do that.
After her baptism, her 7 year old daughter asked me if I could baptize her in August. I hope I get to, that would be awesome. Miriam said she asked me to do that because she has a crush on me. I laughed. Her name is Maria-Fernanda Rivera Rivera and she always sits by me during our lessons. 
I have tried to be more aware of my surroundings this week, and I know you only can picture what I tell you so Ill try to explain my neighborhood. It is a colonia called El Roble.  Picture looking down a street. The street is always lined with taxis, taxis are white here. as you go down the street there are pasajes or passages that have houses. houses are all in a line, separated by a cement wall. Every house has a gate in front that is always locked. its almost like a cage. I will try and send pictures because I'm not that good at explaining things. but there are about 8 pasajes on our street and we are the 3rd one. I try and always look around to see what type of people are on the street, if they have a gun or not, and what direction they are going. I also keep my head on a swivel for dogs because we almost got attacked this week! A dog came running up to us and was barking so we used our backpacks as a sheild but it didnt to anything once we got away from its house. 
People arent as mean as I thought. I just take it as mean when they dont want to hear our message. dont get me wrong, weve still been straight up shunned a few times but Usually everyone will tell us politely that they are not interested or that theyre busy. I honeslty dont know what theyre busy with because they act like they clean everything and everything is still dirty but whatever. 
There is a transfer coming up but from what Elder Merlos tells me, you stay in the same area usually for 2 or 3 changes which is 3-5 months I think. He also doesn't think we will change companions. but next change I will have to because elder Merlos leaves in May. I am feeling a little better at teaching but not much. It depends on what we are talking about usually. I have gotten pretty good at explaining what the book of Mormon is and why its important. The size of our area is hard to explain. There is 4 main parts. Stybis is a few miles from our house so we take a bus when we contact there on Thursdays and Sundays. El Roble is our neighborhood and we know the most people there. Buenos Aires is right next to us so we walk around there, its a mile or two long. and Castanos is about 2 miles away but we usually walk if we have time. If its not castanos or buenos aires we either take a bus or a taxi.
I found myself missing Family and Football  a lot this week. Its a very different change for my body not to be working out this time of year. I think my spirit has needed this workout for a while too though. I love and miss you all! have a great week!
Elder Dowell

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