Two Saturdays ago was a high, with the baptism of Nicholas. We made some sweet invitations, and a ton of people came! Very cool, spiritual experience.
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| Getting ready for Nicholas' baptism. |
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| Baptism of Nicholas. |
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| Refreshments after Nicolas' baptism. |
Two Sundays ago was a high as well, with the confirmation of Nicholas. His whole extended family came to support him! Later that night, we attended a Priesthood session with a less-active member. After that, we had a Rescate coordination meeting with the APs [Assistants to the mission President] about some of the new developments we were planning, and then we practiced for a Stake Choir presentation, in which I would accompany with the violin. Sunday night, I was flying in the sky on the wings of a "To-Do" list chock-full of check marks and scratched-off items.
Monday morning it all came crashing down. President had the office staff interviews, and in our interview, he told me my new assignment, which is to leave the office and become a district leader in another zone. He thanked me for my work in the office, and assured me that my contributions were valued, but it was time for me to go. I felt that his words were a little hollow, considering that he had not had time to talk about El Rescate, and therefore probably did not really know what exactly I did in the office. I felt disappointed that all of the developments we had planned the night before would probably not happen. I knew it would be a bittersweet moment when the time came to leave the office.
As well, I'm worried about our investigator, Gisela. She has been receiving the missionaries for the nine months, the last six of which have been with me. Because of the changes in the office staff, our sector will be receiving two new missionaries, and I don't know how Gisela will adjust to the two new faces. Right after we found out about the changes in the office, we called her up and set an appointment to visit that night.
Monday was a really good lesson with Gisela. We gave her aged mother a blessing, and she said she felt the Spirit really strongly. We challenged her to baptism, but she said she didn't feel ready (even though she has a testimony and is perfectly worthy).
Tuesday I found out exactly where I'll be going. It will be me, my companion, and four Sister missionaries in my new district. We were in the office all day preparing for the upcoming cambios [changes/transfers].
Wednesday, we did a service activity for my favorite family in Chile. We had planned for a couple brethren to help us chop firewood for a lady living alone with her children, but there was some poor communication and we were the only ones to show up. So my companion and I chopped wood and then the lady treated us to a nice lunch, which we ate outside picnic style, because we couldn't go into her house without another man there.
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| Picnic lunch after chopping wood. |
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| Super wet wood oozing water as it burns. |
Later that evening, I trained a Brother on the church record system in the stake. Hopefully he'll be able to take care of some of the out-of-date information in his ward now.
Thursday was nuts. We made invitations for the Stake Choir presentation, and went to ice cream as an office. We ordered the "Copa Full", which is 10 scoops of ice cream. The menu describes it as a family-sized serving of ice cream, but each one of us four ordered our own. The waiter couldn't believe it when we told him our order. A little while later he came running back out, and informed us that there were only three "Copa Full" glasses. Elder Gonsalves replied that it was ok, and he would take his ice cream in a large white bowl. The waiter then returned with his manager, who couldn't believe our order either. She verified our order, and let us know that there wasn't enough whipped cream. I took that bullet, and volunteered my ice cream without whipped cream. Long story short, we bought 40 scoops of ice cream, and ate it all.
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| "The Office" going for ice cream. |
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| Copa Full -- 10 scoops of ice cream. Meant for a family to share, but sized right for a missionary elder apparently. |
Later that evening, President Obeso and his wife accompanied us to a lesson. They testified of the blessings of an eternal marriage and of having a temple-centered home. The visit went long (2.5 hrs), and at the end of it, Gisela still didn't feel ready for baptism.
I don't really understand Gisela. She comes to church every Sunday, welcomes the missionaries with open arms, understands the lessons we teach, keeps the commitments we extend, and actually reads the scriptures and prays daily. But she doesn't feel ready to get baptized. She even knows that she has to. If you ask her, she says she just needs "a little more time." It has been a privilege to teach her.
Saturday was crazy as well, with a four-hour choir practice in the morning. The performance is a little over an hour long, with 50 PAGES of music. The violin part accompanied the choir and piano for probably 35 of those 50 pages, so it was a lot of material and not much time to practice. After the choir practice, we filled the baptismal font for a different baptism later that night, and then my companion and I went to a music shop.
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| Lots and lots of sheets of music... 50 PAGES!!! |
I had struggled to find a violin for the performance. At first I was playing a children's violin, which was hard. Then a stranger on the street lent his full-size violin (long story). After playing that one though, I asked myself, "How good really is this violin that I have?" So I asked the music store owner if I could try their most expensive violin, which turned out to be $195. He took it down off the wall, and I tuned and played just the "A" string. The results were flabbergasting. I had no idea the quality of violin mattered so much. My companion doesn't play violin, and he was impressed at the difference as well. The sound was so much clearer and sharper, and the violin was a lot louder and more resonant, with a lot less squeaking. So I bought it.
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| The violin. |
Sunday was one of the most stressful days of my life. Saturday night I grabbed some sheet music, and Sunday morning I played in Sacrament meeting as a farewell to the ward. It was a miracle that I made it through that piece without a single mistake. Then, on top of the musical performance, I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting! Not as stressful, because as a missionary you had better be prepared to give a talk at all times, having "feasted on the words of Christ". But it was still a lot.
Right after church, we headed over to the Stake Center to start preparing for the performance. To our surprise, there was a meeting taking place in the building! The building coordinator had messed up, so our practice time was cut in half. The second miracle that day was how well the choir performance went that evening, considering the amount of time we had to prepare and all of the bad things that happened. It was most definitely a success.
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| Triumphant in bow-tie. |
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| The choir director and soprano soloist from the performance. |
So a good week, in all. Hard to say goodbye to a ward after six months, but that's life.
-Elder Crotzer
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