Dear Family,
You know in those movies when someone is disarming a bomb and right when the counter is on "0:01" it stops? I have found that my mission is similar. Stress, stress, stress, stress, RELIEF. This describes pretty well what went down this past week.
As you all well know, the focus object of the final weeks of the mission has been and continues to be: "Get the Familia Barria married and baptized." I mentioned in the last letter that Elias, their 13-year-old son, wanted to be baptized this Sunday, the 24th, because he wanted to have his own special day apart from his mom and sisters. At first I was opposed to that idea until I realized that it might be just what we needed to help his younger sisters and his mom get more excited about the prospect of their own baptism. So when Francia (the mom) consented, we made sure to work really hard with Elias all week long to make sure he was ready for this step. On Friday the elders came to do the interview and Elder Euceda, my district leader, just about gave me a heart attack when he came out of the interview and told me Elias wasn't going to be baptized. Upon seeing the shock on my face, that was followed quickly with, "Just kidding!" and I was able to breathe again. I still have a small desire to punch Elder Euceda, though.
The baptism was scheduled for Sunday morning, so we got up at the crack of dawn to go fill the font as usual, making sure we left plenty of time to go pick up the Fam. Barria before the service started. As luck would have it, their relatives had stopped in by surprise in the middle of the night (gotta love those Panamanians) and Hna.Francia was frantically trying to cook them breakfast when we showed up. I tried to persuade her that seeing her son's baptism was of much greater importance than a few corn tortillas and she agreed. She just needed a few moments to get ready, so we offered to accompany Elias to the chapel so he could get ready while she finished up getting prepared, the idea being that she would be just 5 minutes or so behind us. Well, we got to the church and had everything ready to go, but by 8:15 Francia still hadn't shown up and the bishop was starting to get antsy about the time. I figured we could start out with the hymn and such to stall a little. By the time we finished the hymn and the first speaker was giving his short little talk, Hna. Francia still hadn't shown up. Not thinking I could live with myself if we baptized her son without her there, I was praying she'd get there, meanwhile the bishop was stressing me out with his constant glances at his watch. The time came for the baptism and Juan, our 2nd counselor who was perfoming the baptism, asked where Elias' mom was. I ran outside the chapel to see if by any chance she was close by and much to my everlasting relief, Francia and Michelle, her youngest daughter, were walking up the steps. "0:01" left on the clock.
She shed some tears when Elias was baptized and told us she felt something cool come over her. I know she's ready for her own baptism. We are just praying with all of our might that we somehow get a very kind judge this week who'll consent to do the marriage on Friday in time for a baptism this weekend, as we had originally planned. I don't know why, but I get the feeling that this one's going to come down right to the wire. Sometimes I wonder if the Lord doesn't just find it amusing to watch me fret...
So. There were are. In 2 weeks' time I expect to have some great stories to tell you all in person. In the meantime, keep praying please.
Love you all,
Hna. Brewster
p.s. I used a machete for the first time this week. Just so you all know. Quite proud.
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