Mission Week # 13

Sent: Mon, Jan 10, 2011 3:36 pm
Subject: The Mission is the Best

Hello!

It has been an incredible last week.

Friday morning we recieved a new companion. His name is Elder Best and he is waiting on a visa to Mexico. He is directly from the MTC so it has been fun to think how I was in his shoes 3 months ago. That night I went on exchanges with one of the English elders and it was nice to say whatever I wanted but I still prefer Spanish.

Saturday was probably the single coolest day of my entire life. I have thought before how I would like to have at least one incredible story to come home with and the story of Saturday is that and more. So, Saturday night was supposed to be the baptism of Juan and Maria at 6:30 pm. We had a couple appointments in the morning and early afternoon and after that we headed to a chapel with computers to make the baptism programs. We made those and then called our ward mission leader at about 2 pm to make sure he was going to take care of filling the font. He said that he would and that actually he was at the church when we called him and the font had been used that morning for an 8 year old baptism. Thus, it was emptying from earlier but he put the plug on the drain so it was still about halfway full. The plan would then be for him to return at about 4 and put hot water in for about 2 hours to fill it the rest of the way. We went and saw some more people then at about 4:30 recieved a devestating call from the ward mission leader, saying that he was at the church and the font, which takes roughly 4 hours to fill was completely empty. Evidently someone did not read the note saying that there would be another baptism and not to empty the font. We told him to just start filling it and we would see what would happen. The most likely result being that we would have to move the baptism to 7 or 8. We then went to our dinner appointment and got out at about 6 to some missed calls. The WML had left a message saying things were not looking good with the font. We headed to the chapel and things definitely did not look good. The font had about 4 inches of water and by that time it was about 6:15. Jaun and Maria were there unaware of the situation but we told them and they were still positive. Everyone was thinking of what we could do and Maria even got one of her friends to start filling trash cans full of water. The trash cans didn't do much so we had to turn to a different option. A block away from the chapel there is a fire station. On the way to the chapel we had passed it and the thought had come into our minds but we really didn't think we were going to come to that. However, it is Orem Utah and we thought we would give it a shot. I stayed with Elder Best at the chapel and Elder Barrera went with a member and knocked on the door of the fire station. He told them the situation and they said yes. Minutes later to fire trucks and about 12 firemen were at the chapel. Elder Barrera had to go back and get our baptismal clothes so I worked with the firemen on getting the hose to the font. Miraculously where the font was situated there was a small window that is perfect for circumstances such as we had. They started shooting water into the font and within ten minutes had it full. By that time a bunch of ward members as well as friends of Juan and Maria were there and everybody was going crazy with excitement. Including me. The firemen packed up and headed out in a surprisingly business-like manner but we all definitely thanked them a lot. The water they used was pretty cold so we threw a couple trash cans full of hot water in as well to try and make it a little more enjoyable. We ended up getting started at about 7:30 and it was an awesome program. Elder Barrera baptized Juan and I baptized Maria. And of course, we ended the night off with some excellent Mexican food and a cake.

Thats about all the time I have. We are teaching a 9 year old named Laysha and she should be getting baptized the 22nd. Also, Juan and Mario Romero have been bringing their uncle Tomas to church and we started teaching him 2 weeks ago. Friday he accepted a baptismal date for the 29th. Things are going great! Hope you all are doing well.

Much love, Elder Clark