Guadalajara- 6/25/12

so sorry everybody about not being able to email last week, things got a little hectic and well i didnt get around to being able to email. however i got a good email for you all this week, lots of good things have been going on here lately. last sunday the 17th we were able to baptize an investigator!! yep he canceled his contract with his team early and told us he wanted to get baptized! it was so rad being able to finally see him get baptized, i knew the day would come eventually, because his contract ends in the middle of july, but the fact that he made the decision to be baptized and make that sacrifice is just awesome. and also a cool little fun fact about his baptism that i figured you all might like, especially nicole, is that i planned his baptism so that it would at the same time as nicoles graduation party haha, so while you were all in california partying and having a good time in celebrating nicoles graduation, we were having our own little spiritual party and celebration here in mexico haha. it was an interesting baptism too because the church here runs off a water tank and well we ran out of water filling up the baptismal font and only had about 2 feet of water haha, so i had to baptism him on my knees while he sat down in the font haha it was interesting to say the least. but ya i thought youd all like the fun little fact that i planned the baptism to be at the same time as the graduation party. 

baptism

and speaking of which, CONGRATS NICOLE! and also happy late fathers day to all those dads out there!! 

last picture with president jesperson and sister jesperson :(

yesterday we were able to baptize another investigator, a seriously special young mom. we first contacted her about 3 months ago, it was about 9:30 at night and we had just walked from san martin to the bike shop in santa paula because my bike broke and so i was dead and not really in the best of moods haha but anyways so were walking back to the house and walking towards us is a young lady with two little girls carrying groceries. briz tells me to contact her, i told him naw its late we need to be in the house and shes busy anyways and probably wont talk to us, and so as we get close to her briz says good evening and begins talking to her, she accepts a visit and we make a appointment to visit her during the week. we pass by that week and shes not there. we pass by her house every now and then for the next following weeks and shes never home, and then we find her one day walking in the street again and we start talking to her and we end up setting an appointment with her again. however when we pass by again she isnt home. we leave it at that because we thought that she was just giving us the run around, until one day about 2 months after we had initially contacted her, we decided to pass by her house, and well she was home! 

baptism of sara, such a rad daughter of our Heavenly Father :)

and well weve been teaching her for the past month or so and we were able to baptize her this last weekend. and let me tell you what she is so rad. she has a stronger testimony than half the members in the ward haha, in all the foyettos we would give her she would write her testimony of the doctrines she had learned on the pages with pictures. and i mean like legit testimonies and personal thoughts and feelings. im gonna try and take some pictures of the foyettos so you all can see what im talking about. its funny too because after the first sunday she came to church, the bishop approached us and asked us who the member was that came with us because he didnt recognize them, and we told them it was an investigator not a member haha and he was like oh wow, good job elders. 

baptism of sara, such a rad daughter of our Heavenly Father :)

but ya shes just way rad. and then last night at her baptism we asked her to bear her testimony and it personally made me cry being able to see how shes grown spiritually and more than anything just how happy she is. like she is filled with just pure joy and happiness, and she knows that its because of the gospel and her Heavenly Father. i could go forever about how special she is but unfortunately i dont have enough time to tell you everything, ill tell you everything when i get home though haha. 

sara with the missionaries at stake conference...she wanted to take a picture with all the missionaries who were there haha

also this past week had a neat little spiritual experience of being put in the perfect place at the perfect time. so on wednesday theres a huge basically swap meet/ flee market type thing that they do in the streets here called tianguis. and so elder briz and i decided that we were going to go contact in them and so were contacting yada yada and i see this little old lady carrying a bunch of groceries and being the nice kid i am i decide to go ask her if shed like some help, shes was a little hesitant at first, but once we assured her that we were just missionaries and werent gonna steal her groceries she said yes and we helped her carry her groceries to her house. anyways so as were talking to her outside her house, a teenage girl walks past us and as she turns the corner a few houses up the street she turns and waves to us. at first i was like oh how nice of her to wave at us, and then it hits me hey! you know her go talk to her! 

family after baptism

so we finish up talking to the old lady and set up a return appointment to teach her and then i tell elder briz to follow me and the i just take off running after this girl who had already gained probably 5 or 10 minutes on us and who knows where she had gone. so im running and stopping at each intersection to look for her and then after not seeing her just make a decision and take off running in that direction haha meanwhile briz is yelling at me maccarthy what are you doing! and i just tell him to trust me haha and keep running. finally we see her at the end of the block and make a left and so we run that last little bit and then stop and begin walking because it looks bad running up to teenage girls and we didnt want the people to think were weird. so we start speed walking until we catch up to her and i say hey! how are you! (i was blessed with the gift of being to remember names easily, its pretty handy in missionary work) and she was like hey i didnt think youd recognize me yada yada haha and just a little background info so we had contacted her about 2 months ago and she said she was gonna call  us and never did so we just thought oh well nothing we can do. 

briz and i in front of a sweet old chapel in ocotlan

but in that first contact months ago i could tell there was something special about her. anyways i ask her why she never called and turned out that she gave the card with our number to her sister and then her sister lost it so she couldnt contact us but how great it was that she us today and that we were able to come talk to her. anyways long story short we stopped by her house this week and she accepted to be baptized the 14th of july woohoo! shes way rad too, she introduced us to her grandpa and were gonna baptize him too. it was a great experience for me to see how as missionaries im really doing the lords work. he knew that she hadnt been able to get into contact with us, however he needs for her to hear this message and be baptized so he put us in her path again so that we would be able to talk with her. i gotta say the Lord works in mysterious ways and it is so cool being able to be part of it! 

briz and i in front of a sweet old chapel in ocotlan

i love too how at times we dont even realize that were doing is preparing us to have a great experience or meet someone or something like that, and well as a result of our obedience and just doing what were supposed to do were able to bless the lives and help others. i mean i had no idea that as a result of asking that little old lady if she wanted help with her groceries would put us on the same street at the perfect time so that brenda would pass by, see us and wave and then us be able to talk with her and place a baptismal date. it all came as a result of me just doing what i do and being obedient and the Lord seeing this, put me exactly where he needed me. its soooo cool huh? missionary work is undoubtedly the coolest thing in the world if i must say so myself. theres nothing else like it. and well its  crazy that this thursday im gonna complete 6 months as a missionary, a fourth of my mission over :( i cant believe how fast the time is going. all i know is i gotta live it up and leave no room for regrets, i only get this once chance and then hasta luego! anyways thought have a great weeek everybody and hope youre enjoying your summer!! love you all and stay strong, the world needs more people like you!!

3 kilos of fruit loops haha...like they say go big or go home and i still got a while till i go home haha

Much love from Mexico,

Elder Maccarthy