Week 24

Wow. What a week.

This week was such a great week. We met with Esperanza as much as we could leading up to her baptism. We taught most all of Lesson 5, and read scriptures with her. On Friday before her baptism, we visited her and she was sick. Poor woman! But that wasn't going to stop her. She was so excited to be baptized. When she gets excited, she gets really vocal. It is one of my favorite things. So sweet.

At our chapel we had no clothes that would work at all for Esperanza. We had one slip, and then the rest were jumpsuits. Esperanza is so small, so there was no way the jumpsuits would work. So Hermana Wilson and I went on a hunt for some dresses. We finally found one that could work, although it was going to be going with a lot of hope. The Surrey Hermanas came to the rescue and got one to us from their chapel.

While we were looking for clothing, we had to have one of our zone leaders unlock the closet. I was busy searching for clothes that could work, and Hermana Wilson was talking through which ones would be best. I wasn't watching, so Hermana Wilson starting talking to Elder Maurer to get his opinion. She just wanted help, but she wasn't getting it. She was holding dresses and slips up to herself, asking what would work, and Elder  Maurer started getting flustered. Haha

Elder Maurer: (in a frantic voice) I don't know. I'm just and Elder.

I could not help but die of laughter.

We met with Elder Cottingham, one of the Assistants, and Elder Stone (they were on exchanges) right before the baptism, to make sure everything would flow well.

We got things set up, but the members bringing Esperanza didn't get her there until the time the baptism was supposed to start. Things started getting a little crazy. But we got her dressed and all ready.

We started the meeting. We have a new Ward Mission Leader!!! Blessings! Hermano Puschel! He's amazing. He did so much to help with the baptism. I was translating from Spanish to English for the other missionaries and their investigators, as well as for the interpreter we had, who is an investigator in Surrey, Alice*, who was willing to help us out. President and Sister Burt wanted to come so bad, but there was a last minute emergency and couldn't make it. Hermana Wilson talked about baptism and then we went to perform the ordinance.

We only had to do it once, and it all worked out, 3 languages and all.

We came back and I had to translate Andrew's talk from ASL to Spanish with Alice's help. Then Hermana Espinoza invited her to Relief Society and Obispo invited her to the ward. Then I said the closing prayer. As I was taking off the microphone for translating to give to Hermana Wilson, they headphones got stuck in my hair. Haha so I laughed super hard but silent and we tried to get them out. Everyone was just staring in silence. As I walked up to the front, I tried to fix my hair. I said the prayer and played it cool. You'd be impressed:)

Afterwards, we were talking to one of Elder Gurr's and Elder Nielson's investigators, Paulo*. He told us that he felt the Spirit so strong and that he is so excited to be baptized!

We were talking to Elders Kaonohi and Cedeno and they said that their investigator also felt the Spirit so strong and he started to cry, and they set a baptismal date for him for July 5th.

We went to ESL this week because the Van Korean Elders were bringing a Spanish potential named Amada*. We met her and stayed with her in class. Then we were invited to the ESL breakfast for Saturday. While there, the teacher, speaking English and not her native language, asked Hermana Wilson to move the syrup "over there". Hermana Wilson thought she meant putting it in another pitcher and started to pour the syrup in a pitcher, but it was filled with water. Super funny. She freaked out. Haha

Last P day, we met 10 Spanish people! Blessing! We met a couple from Ecuador. We walked their 8 bags of clothes from Walmart with them to the nearest Skytrain station, which ended up being not that close. We talked in Spanish:) They were here for just the weekend, and saw how great the deals were at Walmart that they were stocking up for all their kids at home. We had a really awesome conversation, and at the end, they invited us over once we were done with our mission and said we could stay with them in Ecuador for a while! They gave us their address and phone number. Super sweet!

We were taking the Skytrain to Yaletown Roundhouse Station on our way to the beach for P day, and we started talking to this guy named Henry*. What do you know. He speaks Spanish! We were having a conversation with him, and all of a sudden this lady walks up to me and says our Spanish is really good! Hermana Wilson kept talking to Joseph and I started talking to the other lady, Cristina*. She is from Argentina (love the accent!). She said she had seen missionaries before and really wanted to learn about our church and read the Book of Mormon. We got both their numbers and are looking for an opportunity to teach them. They are super busy, but they are so amazing!

We met so many other great people. Including and inactive member, who turned out to be from Chile, named Esteban*! He's excited to come to church again! He doesn't remember much because he stopped going when he was young. But he works at Science World, and is getting us in for free next P day! He is awesome!

We got to do service again in Richmond for the Fajardo Family! We mowed and weed-whacked! It was heaven!

In summary, this week was super great. I love being a missionary!

I've got to go now! 

Love, Hermana Lewis

Waiting for the SkyTrain at Joyce Station

Temptations...

I don't remember why we took this picture.

LSP

<3 Be-gnomes

Juliette baby-sat my camera.

We were about to pray before going to a lesson when I saw these cute baby skunks frolicking in this front yard! Adorable!!!