Letter from August 29

Well at the end of a great week, full of miracles, I am happy to announce that Flor was baptized. She is the lady that had the dream about me and my companion when she was praying to find the true church.  It was such an awesome experience. She has more faith than any other investigator I have taught so far.  There are always challenges before the baptisms, but the challenges she passed would make just about anyone unexcited to be baptized, but it goes to show her faith. We met her 2 weeks ago which is awesome because she was baptized in two weeks. She is a single mom, her husband died a few years ago. She also lost one of her sons.  She has 5 kids now in total, and three of them live with her and she supports them all. Well she had her interview and everything Friday and passed with flying colors.  So she was ready to be baptized Sunday.  Saturday she went to the bank to withdraw money she had to pay a debt.  She went to the bank with her little daughter that is 11 years old.  She withdrew the money and on her way home, she was robbed in the street.  They took her purse with the money, her cell phone and a few other things.  She had about 250 American dollars which here is about 700 soles, and a ton of money. It was basically everything that she had.  She ended up going to the house of her friend, Mari, (who was the one that introduced us to her) and cried. She was unexcited at first and told her friend that she didn’t want to be baptized for all that had happened, because on top of that her son got drunk and was causing problems.  Her friend told her that there are always challenges before baptism. Some people have much bigger ones than others.  Flor said that she was going to go through with the baptism. She wasn’t going to let Satan beat her.  The next morning when we showed up to go to church, she was ready to go.   In the end she didn’t get her money back, but it didn’t matter.  She was extremely happy when she was baptized. (The water in the chapel also stopped so when it was time for her baptism, there wasn’t enough water for her to be baptized in, but with the help of the members, we were able to fill it with clean water from a creek in front of a Church.)  She wasn’t going to give up and neither were we.  I can honestly say that it was my favorite baptism in all of my mission.   I don’t know if she will get her money back, and I’m sure she will still have challenges, but she was able to show her commitment to God, and I know that she will be a very faithful member. More good news is that her two daughters ages 11 and 16 will also be baptized either this weekend or the next. What a weekend!  Can you believe that?  It was a great testimony builder for me!

Elder Riggs