4.2 Bites and Bautismo

Buenos días (o tardes o noche depende)! Bienvenido a this weeks spanglish adventure. To start off, I got to be a part of my very very first baptism as a misionera!!! It was literally so perfect and so peruvian. Mafer got baptized this week and literally I have never seen her smile so big. She's adorable. She came out of the font and said "i feel like i'm born again". We were her 6th and 7th missionaries...she's been taught since the pandemic! Just goes to show the Lord siempre has His own timing. I have never been so stressed on my mission as I was on Saturday...we told their family to be there at 5...first mistake. Baptism was for 530 ish...and there's 4 littles living in the house of Mafer right now. Needless to say, 5 rolled around...and then 530...and then 6...the entire youth program basically was there and still Mafer wasn't. Finally at like 620 we sent our Papito (the little viejito hombre incharge of missionaries in Tacna and also is nuestro misionero de barrio consultant) to go pick them up. And from there everything was perfect. So so happy for this sweet irl. She told us she would like to serve a mission and I swear my heart felt full of helium. Love that girl. They take baptisms VERY seriously here...so you'll see in the pictures it legit was a production. Speaking of firsts, had my first dog bite. We were walking along the full on outskirts of our area (the desert is basically 2 cm away) and these crazy frothy mouthed dogs started SPRINTING at us. Hermana Bautista was on the phone with our friend Felicita that vends dried platinos and dried corn (which is lowkey better than popcorn) outside one of the colegios here (all the schools are called colegios...no se....)anyways couldn't find the house of Felicita but found these pups and neither of us were even thinking in our brains to run? yeah it was quite bad. So now my knee has this bruise on it from this meanie dudes teeth and my fav dress from hna whitney dahle now has a hole. Triste. But oh well...had to happen at some point. We found felicita's house by the way, she lives in a cinderblock square with like 50 trillion dogs. She kinda reminds me of the bird lady on mary poppins...but with dogs. One of the dogs is so wack looking and also mostly bald. Apparently her daughter washed him with really strong shampoo and his fur disappeared...mysterious indeed.... Had a SUPER WEIRD interaction today with some dude who walked into the church asking to talk to the elders cuz ig he thought hermanas don't know enough. Jokes on him I barely know enough words in his language to be able to talk so ha! Anyways he sits down and starts to tell us he likes to learn the words of God and has been taught by 26 missionaries? And also that he was in the Army? I think? Hna Bautista couldn't even understand what he was saying (which was a relief, because I really was struggling with my Spanish that day..so knowing a native couldn't understand was a consuelo) This an Victor is trying to read our minds and tell us who our family was? And was analyzing the way Hna Bautista fue sitting? It was all super weird and finally Hna Bautista was like "Can we meet another day?" and he got up and left. So. Yeah. First experience with a Wanna Be Mind Reader in Peru. Had a noche de hogar in the casa of this little old lady who I adore and is so funny. She starts telling us how she one time was eating this carne and her mom goes "oh do you like it? it's our pet cat". I asked her if it was delish and she said of course, muy rico. Had a lesson with Sarai who has a bautismo date, and taught the palabra de sabiduria (word of wisdom...counsel on how to treat our bodies) and I almost peed my pants of laughter. The lessons with her are always super chaotic cuz she has a toooon of questions which is awesome and her boyfriend tries to answer them but he's mega inactive so doesn't really know. So they end up teasing each other the whole time and we all gang up on Brandon together because he wants Sarai to get baptized but he doesn't come to church because he doesn't have the right pants....even though like 70% of the people under 50 wear jeans to church....anyways. Sarai looks pointedly at Brandon and goes "It says here that we shouldn't consume food in excess. That's a sin. So gorditos can't enter Heaven." Brandon is un poco circular and loves to game and I seriously thought it was the funniest thing ever. The whole rest of the lesson, and the other lesson we had with her she would hint to Brandon that "According to this scripture" or "this council" you are sinning. Basically she's the missionary teaching her boyfriend at this point. Quite possibly my favorite thing this week (after the baptism) was our noche de barrio. We met with a bunch of friends in the wardhouse and played member bingo that i made and all the Relief society moms and kids and old men were running around yelling "WHOHASBROKENABONE" or "DOESANYONELIKECUY?!?" <<> with an inactivish member today. It says I am a disciple of Christ CALLED to share his gospel. I love it. Literally as a missionary it's my sacred responsibility to share his word. But everyone has the chance to hear God's word and share it too. Jesus is pretty awesome that way...setting an example of someone focused in the will of His father. Sorry this is a literal essay. I had time today and didn't want to forget cosas. Enjoy the following flicks from the baptism, Caleb giving me a manicure with clay, this weird coat dog I saw at migraciones, a spider that looks like a crab that hermana bautista said I couldn't touch and exchanges. OH YEAH I FORGOT i went on exchanges and went to Leguia to be with hna Kelsey. It was sosososososo fun speaking english and also just getting to feel like i actually had something to give (sometimes it's hard cuz hna bautista is so smart and good with members and also speaks spanish and stuff that i just kinda sit in the corner but with hna kelsey we both gringa so i had to work) the pictures with all the people on the pulpit was from the BAPTISM it was crazy. Also Allison has her baptism this week...pleaseplreasplpelepleaseee pray she can quit smoking!!! She's so close and literally has the most hardworking heart of anyone I've known, but still needs your prayers to be done by wednesday!!! yeh anyways if there's more pictures use your imagination and you'll probably be right about what happened. (if you gets that the bev i have is the most delish shaved ice ever you would be right) love you all a bushel and a peck, hna barker

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