The First of Many Baptisms

So if you all remember from last week, we had some baptisms planned for 10/24. The mother and Aileen of the Familia Guerrero Gaxiola were supposed to be baptized, but the mother got nervous and backed out but the 12 year old daughter still had the bravery and courage to get baptized. Some members of this family speak English, and they don't speak Spanish fluently either so sometimes I speak English to Aileen. She got baptized on the 24th, and who did she want to perform the ordinance? Me! I hadn't been out in the field for 2 weeks and I was already baptizing someone. So the 24th rolled around, I baptized Aileen. She's great! I had to memorize the baptismal prayer in Spanish. Elder Lugo and I planned the baptismal service, we had a few talks and some hymns. Aileen's entire family attended the baptism which was great, because I felt the Spirit and I know they did too. The mom was evaen crying and thanking us for what we did for her daughter. I'm sure that the Fam. Guerrero Gaxiola will be baptized, I'm just not sure when. The service  ended and literally 30 seconds after it, one of the sister missionaries ran up to me and hurriedly asked me if I could bless one of their investigators who was feeling really sick. So I talked with Elder Lugo and we blessed this lady who was sick, moments after the baptism. I was definitely on a spiritual high. I have pictures from the baptism. One thing that I can take away from this is that our God is most definitely a God of miracles!! I firmly believe that a change in a person's heart is absolutely the greatest miracle that God can perform. Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 15-16 has so much more meaning to me now! I've been studying hard and working hard this past week and I surely have been blessed. It gets tiring and hard walking around everywhere and not speaking very well. But I do know that the Lord is on my side. One scripture that my companion showed me this week is Isaiah 41:9-10,13. I have a lot of faith that my God can perform many more miracles during my mission. I can even say that I'm confident that He will show His hand in my life and in the lives of those around me as I serve. 

Anyways, my Spanish has been improving. Slowly, but surely. Sometimes people don't understand me and they look to my companion who repeats what I said. One boy told me that I speak strange. But my companion tells me that it's just my accent, and that I have proper word-structure. I'm the only English-speaking missionary in my district. The other elders and sisters are assigned to study English during their mission, and they have workbooks that they use. They ask me to help them with their pronounciation in English. I help a lot of people with English. A group of kids, maybe close to 10 kids, ran up to me and asked me to translate their names into English. And they ask me how to say different things in English. The mother of the Fam. Guerrero Gaxiola asked me to speak English to her children so that they practice. The mother of one of our investigator families, Fam. Lopez Madrid, asked me to help her kids with English. Not much else has happened this week. We visit a lot of less-active families and investigators. We're still teaching Angel and Helen. They're on track to be baptized but we're still working on them. Their mom told us that she wants to see a change in her kids before they're baptized so that's our challenge with an 11 and 9 yr old. There's a lot of good food here. The people always offer the missionaries food and water. When they serve us food, they serve large portions and if we don't finish the first plate or get seconds, then we're being rude. So there's been times where I feel like I'm going to burst. Sushi is really big around here. I tried it for the first time in my life yesterday. The mother of Aileen and Aileen took me and Elder Lugo to a sushi restaurant yesterday after church. Since I didn't know what to order, I had Aileen pick something for me. And it was delicious! I don't even know what I had but it was good. Shrimp is very big around here too. For those worrying about me and the hurricane, I'm safe! I felt no effects of it and I didn't even know there was going to be a hurricane until now when I'm checking my email. I heard that it was several hundred miles south, near Guadalajara. We didn't even get any rain haha. It's consistently burning hot here. I washed my clothes by hand again this morning! Fun! Haha psych it wasn't fun.

Well, I think that's all I have for now! Keep sending your stories in! I love to hear about your lives and how the Lord is blessing you all. 

Love,

Elder Finkner