memorable 1 year in the books, even better one lies ahead
so we had an outstanding week here in apatzingan, a lot of stuff happened that made it a pretty memorable week in my mission. to start the week off it was christmas time and so that means phone call home, which was a great motivator for me and it was great to be able to see the fam bam and see thats everyones doing good and to talk to them about the mission and all that jazz. its funny though because even though the phone call was just a week ago it already seems like it was a few months ago ahah.
also this past friday i completed 1 year in the mission and so that was a bit of a milestone for me, its all down hill from here booooo just means i gotta kick it in the butt even more and week even harder than before. on this past saturday we had the baptism of our investigator, and it was a pretty impactful baptism for me. mostly just because of the change that we saw in him. it was the first baptism ive had where theres a literal distinguishable new light that the person gives off, hes a little bit of a rough and tumble guy, he says it how it is and has a very interesting character haha but when he came back into the room after just getting baptized he had this different light about him, it was like if you had a light bulb covered with dirt and stuff and then cleaning it off and it just giving off a completely different light. added to my testimony of the reality of the baptism and how its true that it really does allow us be completely cleansed of our sins. he was way stoked to get baptized which made it even cooler.
and then yesterday we were able to confirm him a member and give him the gift of the holy ghost and also to be give him the aaronic priesthood and ordain him to the office of priest, which added even more to how special this weekend was. the next step is for him and wife to enter into the temple to get sealed! because if you remembered at the beginning of the month we baptized this one lady and well the guy we just barely baptized is her husband, and so were amping them up and setting them up on the right road so that a year from now theyll be able to enter the temple and make even more sacred and important covenants with our Heavenly Father.
so sorry mom and dad but i dont think ill be coming home for christmas because im gonna see if the pres. will give me an extension so that i can attend their sealing and all that great stuff. so ya just a heads up :) because also this weekend we have another lady planned to get baptized thats the wife of a less active member and they also have plans of getting sealed in the temple a year from when she gets baptized so i dont plan on coming home for christmas, but its a still a ways away ill leave it at that haha. but ya also to celebrate the baptisms we're going out to eat at a seafood restaurant this thursday so that should be fun haha.
anyways so im gonna over to a really cool experience we had this past week in a lesson with this one family were teaching. its the same family that we just began teaching that i mentioned in the last email. so anyways this past friday we decided to stop by their house to see if we could find them in their house because they hadnt been home for our other appt earlier in the week, and so we show up and sure enough they were home and so we decided to talk to them about the book of mormon and to give them all their own personal copies of it, so we were talking about it and reading some parts of it here and there with them and helping them to get an idea of what it is why its important and how itll bless their lives and as were talking the dad begins to tell us about how a few hours before we showed up his wife wanted to leave to go down to the mercado to pick some things up but he kept telling her no because he said he felt like that we were going to stop by and share something special with him, and so the hours passed by and we hadnt showed up and his wife was telling him that we werent going to show up but he kept insisting that no he felt they just needed to wait a little longer and then haha we actually showed up to their house as they were arguing a little about the situaution haha but anyways he shared this with us and that as soon as we began to explain the book of mormon to him he felt something tell him that this is why he needed to stay there and the lesson just was way spiritual and i know that without a fact that the spirit was there testfying of the truthfulness and importance of this book to this man and his family. ah so cool!
and then even cooler was how this sunday about midway through sacrament meeting they showed up to church! they had walked from their house, about a 30 of 45 mins away, and it made me and elder nielson so happy haha because they didnt show up their at the start we didnt think they were going to be able to make but when we saw them walk into the sacrament room our hearts jumped with joy and it was just way rad to see. one thing i love about those chosen people you meet every now and then, they take into account the words nefi and they go and they do the things that the Lord has commanded us to do and they have that unwaverable faith and trust in him. something i wish you all could experience.
also so the president took the other companionship out of apatzingan and so elder nielson and i are running the show now here and its going to be a handful here and were really going to have to kick things into high gear because we have alot of potential baptisms in this next month and a lot of people who are progressing really well. so wish me luck and ill be sure to keep you all informed and up to date on all the cool stuff thats going down here and the great experiencias that im having.
i hope that you all enjoy this new years and that you pass it safely and with high hopes for the year that we have ahead of us. im sure that its going to be the best year of my life and i hope you all have the same aspirations. i love you and take care!
much love from mexico,
Elder Maccarthy
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