Baptism on Saturday...August 31, 2015

Well, I am getting settled into my new area.  I am in Soledad (it is like a suburb of Barranquilla) and it is super crazy!  I am glad to live where I live because the weekends here are crazier than spring break in Miami!!  My new ward is medium size (about 110 people) and we have a progressing area! In our zone we are in charge of the bus terminal (the mode of transportation for the mission) and so things got super crazy right when I got here as we then had to find rides for about 100 missionaries to their respective areas.  Later that night we had to send the trainers and their new missionaries off to each of the cities where they were going then to take some of the new sisters in our zone to their town where they are going to be.  Our zone is one of the bigger zones in the mission (16 missionaries but 4 less than Valledupar) but super super big in distance.  Half of our zone lives a half hour or more from where we live.  The mode of transportation here is the front half of a motorcycle welded to what looks like a roll cage... It would make for a sweet snowmobile hahaha :)

My new companion is Elder Puchoc from Peru.  He has the same time I do in the mission and is super cool!  We have gotten along super good and been able to make some pretty good goals or plans we would like to accomplish together! 

Right when I got here I was informed that we were to have a baptism on Saturday!  Her name is Beatriz and her husband is Raul.  He has been a member for a while but has been less active.  She has been listening to the missionaries for 3 years now but none of them have been able to dunk her in the water yet (short of papers to get married which happens a lot because they get lost or aren't registered right and then you have to go to where you are born to get them out.) I was thrilled to find out I would be able to be there with her in the special moment but felt super bad because the missionary that worked oh so hard to have her be baptized was gone.

We were able to be at their wedding (only my companion Beatriz Raul their daughter Laura and I) in the Notary and then in her baptism and confirmation.  It is always such a joy to see what the Gospel can do for someone. 

I learned a lot during the wedding about the Family, especially when the Judge said that he was doing it by the authority he possessed.  It is true that he does have authority but as I thought about it.. we are truly blessed to have the POWER and AUTHORITY of God.. What a blessing it is to be a member of this Church and have the blessings available to us as we do what we are commanded to do.  I know it is true and hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Slack