The stress was thick, but the Spirit was thicker!

Hello again my family!

So this week we had the baptism of Vinicius. He is 11, and we have been working with him a couple weeks now. He has already been going to Church for a while. His aunt is a member, and it was sweet because his whole family came to the baptism. It was crazy though what happened. The other missionaries in the other Branch scheduled a baptism also, and it was going to be the same meeting as our baptism. So, Saturday night they cleaned the font, and I thought they would fill it as well, but they didn’t. So halfway through Sacrament meeting, Elder Cuevas called me and said the font is empty. The baptism was planned for after Sacrament meeting. So all of a sudden things got really stressful hahahaha! So the font was filling pretty well, and we thought it would be filled in time, but then the water ran out because we were getting buckets and using the sinks to fill the font, so neither the sinks nor the font had water. At this point I just wanted to die! So the story does end happily. We postponed the baptism until 3 o’clock, and the Church regained water in time, and everything went fine. There were just not as many people at the baptism as would have been. Elder Jara baptized Vinicius, the first person he baptized on the mission. He said he felt a huge peace when he walked into the font, despite all of the stress. So, the stress was thick, but the Spirit was thicker. I am just glad everything turned out all right.

Also, the Zone Leaders did a division with us this week. I went to their area and stayed with Elder Perreira for two days, and the other Zone Leader did a division with Goiana 1 the first day, and Goiana 2 the second day. The area where the Zone Leaders work is called Paratibe. I met this perfect couple that will be baptized next week. The wife had already been going to Church when she was young, but her parents didn’t let her get baptized. So, when we invited them to be baptized she said, I really really want to. She already had a testimony of the Church and wants an eternal family. So it was a sweet experience. It was the first time at Church for her husband, but he seemed really on top of things, he accepted to be baptized as well. So, it was just really cool that the wife had already been prepared.

I am still doing well here! Still loving Goiana! My “Chilean son” (that’s what missionaries call those they train---“my son”) is doing well also. I am hoping to improve a lot of things this week, and I will let you guys know how it goes. I love you all so much. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Hoyt