A Long Story...

So last week we had a big conference with Elder Stanley G. Ellis.
He's the 2nd counselor of the Brasil area. He's from the 2nd quorum
of the 70. It was cool. He taught from the book, "Preach My Gospel".
That was last Wednesday, March, 12th.

Last Saturday we had scheduled the baptisms of Isabelle and Nivia.
It's a long story......

Friday night our zone leaders came to Cambe to do the baptismal
interviews. Everything went fine. The only thing we had to do was
get a ride to take Nivia from her bed to the church. So all night
Elder Evangelista and I ran around calling people to try to get a
ride for the next day. We didn't end up finding a ride on Friday
night.

So Saturday morning we tried to find a ride and not one member was
willing to help. Basically they all gave lame excuses and wouldn't
even be able to go to the baptism. So we went to Nivia's house to
try and solve something. The man who takes care of her is Claudio.
He's in-active but we're working with him to come back to the church.
When we told him that we hadn't found a ride yet he freaked out.
He went on about the members here and how they're not willing to help
anyone. Then he said, "Just forget it. Nivia and Isabelle won't get
baptized today. They won't even get baptized at all!" He was
seriously upset so my comp and I just left his house because he wasn't
in the best mood to try and talk with him. So Elder Evangelista and
I ran around telling people that the baptism was cancelled. We were
pretty bummed out all day Saturday.

Then Sunday at church, we were pretty disappointed with the members that
bailed out on giving them a ride. The bishop had asked me to give
another talk (this one was for 20 minutes) so I was extra frustrated about
that. In 4 weeks I've giving 2 talks! But right before the
sacrament meeting started Presidente Udo (2nd counselor of the stake
presidency) told us that Nivia & Isabelle would be baptized at 3 o'clock
that afternoon. I was very suprised and asked about the ride and Udo said
that he already set the ride up. Then I asked about Claudio and Udo
said that he already talked to Claudio and had calmed him down. Then
I asked about the baptismal font and Udo said it's already filled. I
was amazed. I gained a lot of respect for President Udo that day. He
planned out everything. And for those who care, my talk was the bomb!

So we get to the church at 3 o'clock for the baptism. Isabelle
wanted me to baptize her and Nivia wanted the bishop to baptize her.
The only problem was that Nivia weighs a ton and she can't walk. She
seriously weights about 170-180. The bishop isn't strong enough to
hold her by himself. So first we wanted to baptize Isabelle. Brother
Helton saw me in my baptismal clothes and asked if I was going to help
them out with Nivia's baptism. I replied that I could help if I needed
to but that I was also going to baptize Isabelle. Then Helton suprised
me when he said, "You can't.....". for those of you that know me, I'm a
smart little punk and am very fast with "come backs" at someone. Luckily
I didn't say anything stupid but the 1st thought in my head was "Does my
name-tag say DEACON Carter or ELDER carter......?" Then he said that the
bishop has chosen him to baptize Isabelle not knowing that Isabelle had
already asked me. He went on to explain that the missionaries only baptize
the converts here, not the members. I didn't even care. My brain was
already burned out because of all the confusion. After Helton baptized
Isabelle, we planned out Nivia's baptism. In the end, it was Helton,
Bishop, me, and Claudio in the baptismal font and the 4 of us brought her
into the font. The bishop had her arms and everything, said the prayer,
and the 4 of us put her under the water real fast. It was a neat experience.

So that's the story. I'm sure this type of situation will never come
about for the rest of my mission. We didn't get the chance to take
pictues because we didn't know about the baptism until we got to
church. We didn't have time to run home and get our cameras.

Today I had planned a basketball game with the other elders. But 4
of them bailed out. What's "March Madness" without a basketball game?
I'm pretty bummed about that.

2 more months and I'm home!
Elder Carter