Last week I received
an email from a companion that I was with about 6 months ago and he thanked me
for the good habits that I helped him create. He said I changed his mission and
that he has still been waking up at 6:30 am ever since we were companions. Receiving
this email really made my week! I love being able to help others, haha, it just
feels so great!!!
This week we saw so
many miracles with the baptism of Pablo! Everything started about two months
ago. He has a son that is serving a mission in Honduras. His son (the missionary)
was baptized about 5 years ago and the rest of the family was baptized shortly
after (except for Pablo, the dad). Over the past 5 years he hasn’t wanted
anything to do with the church and didn’t want to stop drinking. However, about
a week and a half ago his mom got really sick and they were talking, and she
told him he needed to get his life together and go to church and she said that
she would do the same when she got better... So, then Pablo told his wife that
he wanted to be baptized and that he had 2 weeks without drinking, and of
course she didn’t believe that he actually wanted to be baptized haha, but she
called us anyway.
When we got to their
house he was at work, but his wife asked me to bless their house, and then my
companion and I gave Pablo’s mother a blessing. Then that Sunday he came to
church for the first time in a long time and I talked to him for a bit. I
explained a couple of things to him about the blessing and I told him that If
he wanted the blessing to work he would need to act in faith by doing simple things
like coming to church, and also praying with his mother and just being there
with her in the hospital with a warm smile!
On Tuesday they were saying
that they thought that they would have to put his mother on Dialysis and that
she wouldn’t live much longer. However, Pablo stood firm with his faith and
kept visiting her around his busy family and work schedule! His mother walked
out of the Hospital on Thursday and she was doing so much better!!! I went to their
house on Friday and I asked if he wanted to be baptized on Saturday or Sunday
and he said that he would be working on Saturday, so we started to plan the
baptism for Sunday! I told him there would be some surprises and he couldn’t
have even imagined what plans I had up my sleeves hahah!
So, first things first,
I called President to see if he could call the Mission President in Honduras to
get us some permission to do a video call with the missionary during the
baptismal service. Then my companion and I went and printed some really dope
programs and put pics of his missionary and Pablo and some other family pics.
Then on Saturday night we brought the program to him and he was speechless when
he saw it!!! All he said was WOW, I need to go show this to my mother!
On Sunday President
Cahoon came to our sacrament meeting and he gave Pablo a couple of shout outs
during his talk! Then President talked to him for a bit after sacrament meeting
so that was cool! We also had the Bishop invite everyone in the ward during sacrament
meeting too! Then after we ate, we went and cleaned the church for a couple of
hours to make sure that everything was perfect! Then Pablo and his family got
to church, and we got him and his son changed into white! I let his son borrow
my baptismal clothes so that was cool haha!
We connected the
Laptop to a flat screen TV and we connected with the missionary with Skype. He
was jumping up and down when he saw his dad in white and his brother too. He was so excited to see all of the ward
members. There was like 50 people there
haha! The Spirit was so very strong as we started, Pablo and the whole family
were crying, actually the whole ward was crying. Such a treasurable experience
that I will never forget.
Pablo’s wife said the
first prayer, and then his oldest daughter talked about baptism, and then I
talked about the Holy Ghost. Then we put a video of Christ baptism with my
projector and right before the ordinance we had the Missionary bare his
testimony. While they changed I showed some more videos. Then I was privileged
to be able to confirm Pablo!
After we welcomed him
into the ward, we went to the kitchen for some dessert. His wife brought a
cake, and I brought a huge chocolate fudge cake from Costco and a Choco flan
from Costco! It was a great time! As we were eating I took Pablo’s son aside
and I gave him the white sock tie that he used to baptize his dad so that he
could always remember this day!
Things are honestly
going so great, we broke the mission record in baptisms in a month here in my
zone and so that was sweet! My recent converts here are also doing big things
haha! They all have temple recommends and are about to get the priesthood this
week! Some of them even have callings in the ward too! The girl Alko, we
baptized two weeks ago, gave a talk on Sunday so that was so cool!
Words can´t even
describe how much I love the Lord’s work!
Much love,
Elder Ceb
1. Elder Ceb connecting Pablo's missionary son for the baptism
2. Pablo was baptized by his 16 year old son
3. Not a dry eye at this baptism
4. Beautiful family
5. Delicious desserts
6. Yum!!
7. Pizza night!
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