Monday, September 16, 2013

Weddings and baptisms

Querido familia,                            16 de Septiembre 2013

This week we have been working really hard on getting everything ready for the wedding of Belqui and Hugo and we've not been as successful as we had hoped, but by no fault of our own. The last time that we went to civil records they basically ignored us and when we finally got help from the lady at the counter she told us to come back when there weren't so many other people; we catch a lot of disrespect for being foreigners. So we told Belqui and she said that she would be going with her would-be mother-in-law.

But we hit another, bigger, snag in the whole marriage process. Something had happened between Hugo and Belqui, or the process had just become too complicated, because the other day Belqui was saying that they may just cancel the wedding. So last night, when we were with Belqui in the house of Hugo's mom, we talked about the Celestial Kingdom and those that can enter. We also talked about how trials are what refine us and prepare us for the eternal worlds; like the fire that turns iron into steel, the fires of trials make us stronger and more valuable than ever before.

So now we're waiting to see what happens. We have an appointment with them tomorrow and we'll be able to talk to both of them together a little better about the whole situation.

So on Tuesday night, we taught Karen, the girl who was just baptized, and Dayan's dad for the first time. I've never actually really met him before because he is never home when we teach the rest of the family, but his wife is always there. So we were reviewing the lessons with Karen and we just happened to be teaching the plan of salvation. Karen's dad, Daniel, really liked what we taught; he even said the prayer at the end of the lesson. So we asked him when he would be home so that they next time we passed by he could be in the lesson too. 

So we went by again on Saturday with the plan to teach them about the Sabbath day and invite them all to church. Karen's mom never goes to church, not even her own, so we were hoping that Daniel would accept the invitation and bring his wife with him and his kids. Well, it didn't all go quite like we had planned. We taught them about what the Lord expects on His day and how we can honor Him and ultimately, receive His blessing, which include the "abundance of the earth." So we invited them all to come to church the next day and Daniel said, "no." Immediately I thought to ask him if he had heard all the blessings that were promised or if he hadn't understood, but his wife gave the same answer. So all I said was that the blessings are there waiting for them, but at the same time are only reserved for the obedient. Well, they didn't come to church anyway. but maybe some other time they will be more prepared to receive the Gospel. All we can do for now is lay a good foundation and help the kids to stay active.

But now we are going to be teaching the daughter of Rosa and the sister of Hugo, Marta with her boyfriend Omar. Rosa was baptized just a few weeks before I had arrived here, and she is really excited to get all of her kids into the church. The problem that Omar has is that he goes to work in the fields for twenty days at a time, so it will be really hard for him to get the church attendance that he needs and will miss out on a lot of instruction with us. Besides that, he isn't married to Marta and they already have kids together, so we have another wedding to work on. Because of the situation  we set with them the goal to be baptized on the second of November. It's pretty far off, but we just need to keep them excited and focused so that they can keep the goal of getting baptized together.

os amo,
Elder Burt

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