Stick it, Satan

Hello my dear family,

I am currently sitting in a freezing internet cafe absolutely drenched in sweat. Why? This morning my district decided to climb the local mountain, "Cerro Cabra" (or "Goat Hill"). It was a steep climb but I'm happy to say that we did it successfully and I didn't fall down once. An amazing feat considering all of the mud in the way, I might say. We have fun on P-days. I'll miss this.

So this was a pretty good week that almost ended tragically, but in the end we triumphed. Maritza, whom I told you all was going to be baptized this weekend, very nearly missed her opportunity. First of all, she almost missed her interview with our district leader due to a doctor's appointment that kept her 6 HOURS overtime in the city and then yesterday the baptism itself almost fell through when we got to the church and realized the ward mission leader hadn't filled up the font. It was one of those "this can't be happening" missionary moments. We got to the chapel at 7:30 and the baptism was supposed to start at 8. Supposedly the font takes 2 hours to fill up, so you can all do that math. Not really caring about the odds, I cranked up the water and prayed it would miraculously be full in 30 minutes. The members were starting to arrive and when they saw that the font wasn't full, they looked at us like, "Oh, you're in trouble..." One nice sister said, "Don't worry, hermana. It'll be full." I just nodded and continued to stare at the font, willing the water to flow faster as if by mind powers I could accomplish such a task. We had to go pick up Maritza and the whole time we were gone, my constant inner prayer was, "Please let it be full, please let it be full." I guess the Lord heard my frantic pleas because we got back to the chapel and the water was near the top. Maritza never even knew how close she came to losing her baptism that day. The sister who'd given me the encouraging words before smiled and said, "See, hermana? I told you it would fill up--and it did it in 30 minutes!" I'm happy to say that Maritza is now baptized and confirmed and couldn't be more happy. So take THAT, Satan.

The funny thing about all of this is that as I was sitting in the baptismal service for her, I felt strangely removed from the situation. We'd found her and taught her, yes, but now the ward was taking over and our job was done. And I didn't really feel like we did much at all, to be honest. It was obvious that the Lord had been preparing her for a long time and we just had the luck of finding her. She's such a sweetheart, too. I told her that I'm going home soon and she said, "Well you tell your parents when you write to them that here you have a mom who loves you very much!" So mom and dad, don't worry about me. But don't worry about me replacing you either, because that's not possible.

I love you all very much and hope you have a great week!

love,

Hna. Brewster