El Dia de San Juan proved to be pretty anticlimactic. I didn't see any sign of it yesterday, actually. But we did still have a lot of the old-timers tell us about all the fun traditions they USED to do. Lots of them had to do with San Juan predicting who was going to get married first. For example, one of the traditions was to take a rooster on the 23rd at noon and lock it up without food or water until noon on the 24th (El Dia de San Juan). Then, in an enclosure where the rooster can't escape, all the girls in the neighborhood stand in a circle and each puts a kernal of corn at their feet. Then someone puts the rooster in the middle of the circle, spins it around and lets it go. Whosever kernal it eats first is going to get married first. They all swear by it! Anyone up to try that next year? :)
Lately the Relief Society sisters have been expressing sadness about the fact that girls nowadays only care about makeup and parties, when before their traditions were so much more fun. But I have a lot of hope for the girls in this branch at least. Yesterday when we went to the Gomez' house and found their 14-year-old daughter, Araceli (who has already finished Personal Progress), helping a less-active girl do her Personal Progress. It was adorable. Araceli also leads the branch's Young Women in doing visits to all the less-actives and the sick. The next generation of Relief Society is in good hands.
This week was so crazy. I have a headache just thinking of how to write about it. I'll just give it my best shot.
So...on Monday we were so sure that the Meza family was all set to get baptized, and then out of the blue, our branch president's father-in-law was also set to be baptized! He's always gone to church and has been listening to missionaries for 10 years, but his hang-up was always his chewing tobacco. He couldn't quit to save his life (or his soul in this case...) until this month when his loving little six-year-old granddaughter Arami became his shadow and scolded him whenever he tried to chew tobacco. His heart was so touched that he gave it up completely and told us, "Hey, I want to get baptized this Saturday."
Another miracle baptism!
But then on Thursday we had the Elders come do interviews, and turns out we had to postpone the Meza family's baptism again until this next Saturday. We were sad, but it's actually proving to be a lot better this way. They had something they still needed to clear up as a family, and now they're stronger for it. But Crecencio was still good to go after his interview, and we were so grateful for the Lord's tender mercy in giving us a baptism this weekend after all.
Then on Friday night, Pte. called and was like, "Hermanas, Crecencio can't get baptized tomorrow. He has to work. We'll do it after church on Sunday." Again, we were disappointed (this would mean four baptisms in June, but no confirmations until July!), but we called everyone on Saturday morning to tell them about the change of plans.
Then on Saturday afternoon, at like 2:00, Pte called AGAIN and said, "Actually, if we hurry we can do the baptism at 4:00!"
Oh. We hurried.
We called everyone all over again (and they were EXTREMELY confused) and everyone pulled through for us. We had a nice, simple service Saturday afternoon, not really able to believe the blessing that it was. We didn't even know he had INTEREST in being baptized until six days ago, and there he was a new member of the church!
Funnily enough, everyone in the branch seems so impressed with us, now. Especially our ward mission leader. Before they could be a little critical about our efforts, but now they're all like, "Wow, you got Crecencio baptized and the Meza family is going to be baptized...you missionaries are amazing. You're going to be so successful."
If they're this impressed with a last-minute baptism we hardly had anything to do with, how will they be when our actual investigators are baptized? :)
At this, the end of the mission, the Lord is showing me so many blessings for my labors, I feel like. We had a zone training meeting on Tuesday, and I had the amazing opportunity to meet the trainee of my trainee, a sister from Peru whose name is really difficult and I can't remember. What an awful "grandma" I am! My two trainees were there with me, and I just had to snap a picture. It was a beautiful moment.
It's amazing how much everything seems to be fitting together for me. My days are so happy, and even the rare bad day I'm able to support without too much trouble. I've come to learn that each day of our lives is like receiving one piece of a puzzle every day. Some days the pieces are obviously beautiful, with a cherry blossom or a butterfly or something on it. Other days, the piece is hazy and ugly and seemingly unnecessary. But if we respond with gratitude and fit all the pieces together, at the end we'll see that even the apparently ugly pieces are necessary and wonderful in creating a beautiful picture.
I hope you're all enjoying your summer. We're dealing with lots of drizzly rain and mud, but thankfully we're allowed to wear boots (back in the day they weren't allowed because they didn't look professional, but I guess they decided that boots look better than the trash bags Hermanas would wrap around their shoes to save them from the mud). Still no colds or flus, thankfully. I hope you're all healthy and happy, too.
Thank you Hna. Tua'one, Grandma Springer, Nana, Dad, Mom, Amanda, Ashley, Blairs, McConkies, and Teresa for writing to me this week! I love you!
---Hna. Springer
My "posterity"--my two daughters in the mission and my granddaughter from Peru. :) The rest are of the baptism we had on Saturday.
Oh, that other one is of the letter I got from the office containing all the information for my "deathday," hence the picture some office Elder attached to it in the mailing process. :)
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