Great Email! Love it!

Hey Family!

How are you all? I've been great. This week has been awesome. I've been focusing on the work more and more everyday and my companion is as well and we're seeing alot of great things happen in the area.

Yesterday Gabriela was baptized after church. She was going to go to the beach and have to wait another week to get baptized but then her dad got sick and they didn't end up going. That's too bad that her dad got sick but she did ended up getting baptized so that was good. The adversary was sure working hard to stop that baptism though. We planned to have the baptism right after the church services. We had called the elders from the ward that meets right before ours and asked them to get the font ready for us and they said they would. We got to church fine and Gabriela showed up on time and excited for the whole thing. We recognized we forgot the cameras so we had to run home and grab them. Then we came back to the church and checked the font, to find it half full of freezing cold water! I don't know who turned the water off but it wasn't super full. And it was cold because the boiler at the church had run out of gas or something so we couldn't heat the water up. Also there were three dead crickets at the bottom of the font but Elder Ripley grabbed them before anyone saw. Anyway. To top off the font problem we found out that some missionaries from a different area had borrowed our baptismal clothes for the baptisms they were having at the same time. We called the zone leaders and they started on their way to bring us some baptismal clothes. The clothes didn't end up getting there for about an hour and a half, so everyone was just waiting around for almost two hours after church to see the baptism. The brother who was going to give a talk had to leave, so I came up with a quick talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost. When the zone leaders finally showed up with the clothes, they were a little surprized to find that Gabriela isn't a very small girl... They had brought two sets of clothes, one for children, and one for slightly larger children. We were totally at a loss for what to do at that point and we felt horrible for making everyone wait so long (especially Gabriela). Elder Ripley, one of the Zone Leaders, and I went into a room and said a prayer that some how the clothing situation would work out. We just gave Gabriela the clothes after and told her they might be a little tight. They ended up fitting her fine! Sweet. Anyway, we got the ordenance done (Elder Ripley got to baptize for his first time in the field), and then were about to head to our food appointment when we found out the family that was going to feed us had left the city. Then we heard that President wanted to interview us to see how Elder Ripley was doing since he's still pretty new. We started heading toward the Presidents house, called him to let him know we were on the way, as he let us know he no longer had time. So Sunday was pretty crazy!

We've been really working on teaching people full lessons on contact when we're knocking on doors lately. If we can just get into their homes and bring the Spirit with us it really helps them to recognize the power of the gospel. It's amazing how well the Lord knows his children, and how much He's changing their lives down here through His gospel. I'm just thankful to be a part of it!

Shash- Sounds like mill hollow was pretty cool! that's a fun experience. You have a pretty busy week coming up! You'll have to let me know how it goes! Love ya Sloosh!
Den- It sounds like Raging waters was a blast denny-o! Way to go teaching your friend to do a backflip!
Dad- I loved the Duncan Jalapeño story! haha. That dog is crazy. Speaking of your sense of humor (that you mentioned in the e mail) The other day I used your joke of how you use to always pretend you were the one who got hurt whenever I got hurt, then say "oh it was you, I thought it was me! Few!" or something like that. My comp didn't think it was that funny. Sweet job on the triathlon! Love ya dad!
Nay- Where's Jon going? Like what city? That's awesome about Set's last words. haha. Good luck on your first game coming up. I bet you guys smoke them! You'll have to let me know how Humanities goes! Do you have Mrs Christensen? That was probably my favorite class ever! (besides seminary, and maybe film studies). Love you Nay!
Dig- Raging waters sounds like it was a blast man! Dad told me your car drawings are getting cooler by the day. I can't wait to get a couple in the package to check them out! Love you Dig!
Mom- Sounds like that lesson topic was a little tough. Haha. That's something we have to teach before baptism. It's usually pretty easy unless they have had problems with the law in the past or hate the government or something. We never ran into Marco and Beatriz again, but their neighbor liked the Plan of Salvation and we have another appt with him tonight. That's insane that McKenna is getting married! How am I so old? Love you Mom!

Thanks Katrina and Timmerie and Lincoln and Bam and Shay (I got your package by the way! Love it!) and everyone else who always sends me dear elders! They always help me stay focused on the importance of the work and remind me of what great examples you all are to me! I'm getting letters out to you all every chance I get! Love ya!

Love you all!
Elder Dallas Robert Aguilar