Noche Blanca un éxito

As always I have very little time to write, but I just want to say that we pulled off the 20 baptisms in the noche blanca.  It was a beautiful experience for all involved.  It looked like we weren´t gonna be able to do it, but thanks to some last-minute miracles (probably due to the prayers of all of you) we were able to do it.  We are planning another one for the 21st of December.

In other news,my companion has been called as the new assistant to the President and is en route to Santa Cruz right now, and I am companion-less until the cambios this Wednesday.

Sorry, I want to write more, but I have to send 20 registros bautismales to the mission offices, and there´s no time

Elder Casdorph

Hospital para los infermos (iglesia para los borrachos)

We were super happy yesterday because every single one of our investigators with baptismal dates came to church and the less active members that we were teaching also came.  The sad thing was that Reinaldo, who was supposed to be getting baptised Saturday, came to church.....drunk.

He arrived an hour and a half late, so the members (trying to be helpful) directed him to the sunday school class.  I saw him in the door and told him to come in.  Then, to my dismay, I noticed that he was walking a bit funny and stubling a lot.  He sat next to me, and putting his face uncomfortably close to mine, he said in a voice much louder than the occasion required, "¿Cómo essstá, herrrmánou !?"  From his breath and tone of voice, it was obvious that he was drunk.  As my companion tried to teach the class, he kept trying to talk to me rather loudly.  I had to escort him out of the class as my companion kept teaching.  Outside, he told me about all sorts of problems with his family.  He cried a bit, yelled a bit, and every couple of minutes asked me for money to go buy something to eat.  Fearing that he would use the money to buy more booze, I told him that I´d go with him to buy him some lunch, but that I couldn´t separate myself from my companion and that we´d have to wait until he finished teaching the class.

 My companion finished the class, and the 2 of us now started to talk to Reinaldo.  Reinaldo was mad at Elder Brasher for not wanting to talk to him.  Elder Brasher explained that he DID want to talk to him, but he couldn´t leave behind the class of like 12 other investigators, a recent convert, and 4 less-active members.  Reinaldo yelled at Elder Brasher, called him a wolf in sheep´s clothing and told him that he should have left the 99 sheep to save the other lost sheep.  After talking a bit more, Reinaldo suddenly decided that he was a bit happier and as we were talking (in the sidewalk outside of the church) he decided to sing....really loudly.  He sang suprisingly well, and we congratulated him, saying that we had no idea that he had such pipes.  He asked us again for money to go buy some food, and we took him to a nearby restaurant, bought him some grilled fish, and left him there eating happily as we called his wife to tell her where he was.

His wife later told us that when he talked to her later, that he was really worried that after what happened we wouldn´t come and visit him any more.  We told her that we would still visit him and help him with his goal of being alcohol free, being a good father, and getting baptised.

On the other hand, our other investigators are coming along quite swimmingly and we will have 3 baptisms this Saturday, and 1 more the following week.

Elder Casdorph

ps the pic is of Reinaldo a week ago, when he came to church sober and smiling 

pps: We now made the noche blanca shirts and are super excited for the 19 baptisms that we will have Saturday (sadly with, the fall of Reinaldo and a couple others we fell just short of our goal of 20 baptisms)

 

Noche blanca y Reinaldo

As I wrote last week, we are planning a noche blanca (night of a whole lot of baptisms) for the 16th of November.  We have the potential of baptizing 25 people (in the 4 branches in Bermejo) and 6 of those 25 baptisms will be my companion and I´s investigators.  We have the potential of doing it, but it will require a ton of work, prayers and miracles.

One of the fantastic investigators that will be getting baptized that day is Reinaldo.  I´m sorry, I don´t have much time to write about him, so I copied and pasted what I wrote about him to my mission president.  Sorry, it´s in Spanish, but I hope that google translate does the story justice.

Tuvimos muchos milagros con todos de nuestros investigadores éste semana.  Uno de esos es Reinaldo Orado, un investigador en nuestra área que tuvo un gran milagro éste semana. Él es el "esposo" de una menos activa en nuestra rama que recién vine desde el campo de Santa Cruz y quiere cambiarse y ser mejor padre. Sábado le enseñamos la Doctrina de Cristo y invitamos a bautismo para el 23. Él acceptó y estaba tan animado a bautizarse que pidió que adelantamos la fecha! 

Él dijo, "Oigan, hermanos. Ya estoy 9 meses sin alcohol, y estoy haciendo muchos cambios para estar mas con mi familia y voy a ir con ellos cada Domingo a la iglesia. Siento que debo bautizarme y quiero esto "nuevo comienzo" el mas pronto posible. Me dijieron que iba a ver muchos bautismos el 16. Depende de ustedes, yo no sé, pero ¿creen ustedes que yo puedo estar listo el 16?"

Sintiendo tan felices, le dijimos que si. Le di un folleto de la ley de castidad para leer antes de la próxima cita.

Ayer en la iglesia nos dijo, "Oigan hermanos, yo estaba leyendo el librito que me dieron, como yo quiero bautizarme no, como les dijo y allí dijo que para bautizarme tengo que estar casado, y yo no estoy casado."

Luego el habló con el presidente de rama y le dijo que quería casarse y bautizarse.

Estamos super-felices para él y para todos.

The Google Translate / Andrea-edited version:

We had many miracles with all of our investigators this week. One of those is Reinaldo Orado, an investigator in our area that had a great miracle this week. He is the "husband " of a less active in our branch that just came from the area of ​​Santa Cruz and wants to change and be a better father. Saturday we taught the doctrine of Christ and invited him to baptism for the 23rd. He was so animated [that after he accepted and asked how] to be baptized, we advanced the date!

He said, "Hey, brothers, [for 9] months I [have had] no alcohol, and am making many changes to be more with my family, and I will go with them to church every Sunday. [I am excited] to be baptized, and I want this "new start " soon as possible. I was [already] going to see many baptisms on the 16th. [It] depends on you; I do not know, but do you think that I can be ready the 16th?"

Feeling so happy, we said yes . I gave him a brochure of the law of chastity to read before the next appointment.

Yesterday at church said , "Hey brother, I was reading the book I got, as I want to be baptized now, as I said, and there [it said] that to be baptized [I have] to be married, and I'm not married."

Then he spoke with the branch president and said he wanted to marry and be baptized. 

We're super happy for him and for everything.

I´ll let you all know more about the noche blanca next week.  We are gonna go to Santa Cruz Monday and Tuesday, so I won´t get the chance to write home until Wednesday, but at that point, all of the baptisms for the 16th should be in the bag.  I hope all is going well back in the states and hope to hear from you guys too.

Elder Casdorph

ps. we´re making t-shirts for the noche blanca, and attatched is the design that my companion and I made.

Noche Blancazo

In the zone of Bermejo (by the way I´m zone leader now), we are planning a noche blanco (white night), which is a day when a whole ton of people get baptized, for November 16.  We have been trying to excite the zone for a few weeks to search and teach like crazy to prepare people to be baptized the 16th.  Right now, we have more that 20 people with baptismal dates to be baptized the 16th.  In the 3 months before I arrived in Bermejo, only 1 person got baptized, September was 5 people, and October was 4 people.  Now we´re talking 20 people...in the same day.  All of the members and missionaries are super-pumped for the 16th and my companion and I as the zone leaders have promised that if we have more that 20 baptisms that day, we will call the mission president and beg him to come to Bermejo to preside the baptismal service.

I´ll let you all know next week if we´re gonna have the 20 that we´re hoping for.

Elder Casdorph

El mismo Bermejo

Very little to report here.  Everything is pretty much the same here in Bermejo.  Everything is going great between Elder Brasher and I.  Many of our investigators stopped progressing, so in this week, we were starting over finding new people and knocking a TON of doors.  It is interesting because my companion and I actually really like knocking doors.  Elder Brasher has a special rock that he uses to knock the doors that he has carried around with him for like 10 months now.  I also have my own toca-puerta(doorknocker) that is a rusty, old bolt that I have been carrying aroung in my pocket every day for a couple of months.  We have found some great, new investigators in this week, and we will see how things go with them.

It´s hot here now. Really hot. And they say that it´s only gonna get hotter.  There is honestly very little to report here, especially because my computer keeps randomly turning off every 8 minutes, but I promise an awesome email full of exciting stories next week.

Elder Casdorph

El Gran Cambio a la Rama Bolivar

The exchanges came (exchanges? I´m pretty sure thats how you say cambios in English) and I got...changed?...transferred? I´m sorry.  My English is severely suffering, but the point of the story is that I am now serving in a new area and with a new companion.  I am still in Bermejo, but now in a different area.  In the house where I was living there are 2 companionships or 2 areas.  I got changed from one of these areas to the other, so my big transfer just meant moving all of my stuff across the hall.  I still live in the same house as my old companion, so I still get to ask him how things are going with Fernando, the branch, and our investigators.

My new area is Bolivar 1 (the old one was 1 de Mayo 1), and my new companion is Elder Brasher from Oklahoma.  This is my first time in the whole mission being with a gringo companion and what makes it even better is that we are from the same group and were in the same district in the MTC in Lima, Peru.  It´s cool to see how much we have both progressed after leaving the MTC.  We get along great and all is going just fine.

When I went to church on Sunday, a ton of the members told me, "you look just like the Elder that is in the other branch!" and I enjoyed responding, "I am the elder that was in the other branch."  Anyways, there are a lot of new things with being in a new area, but at the same time, I´m still living in the same house, so everything feels pretty much the same.

Elder Casdorph

Fernando Mercado

Today, I wanted to write about our recent convert, Fernando Mercado. He´s such an interesting person, that it will be impossible to convey who he really is with just words and pictures, but those are the only means that I have to describe him so they will have to suffice.

When we found Fernando, he seemed like just a long-haired guy without a job who lived with his mom.  He lacked social skills, such as eye contact and bathing regularly.  The first time we talked to him, he didn´t even want to talk to us, but we sensed something special about him, so after 20 minutes of talking to him through the window, we persuaded him to accept that we could come beck the next day at 3 in the afternoon. We returned the next day, and after some more persuading, he accepted us into his house.

He entered into his room a few minutes and then came out with an old Book of Mormon in his hand.  He showed it to us and we found out that he had read the whole book and marked his favorite parts with blue highlighter.

He told us that a few years ago the missionaries had visited his sister and given her the Book of Mormon.  A year ago Fernando (who told us that he was never really the religious type) decided to read a bible that someone else had given to his grandpa many years ago.  The person who had given this Bible to his grandpa had written something in the cover about finding the true religion and that when he read that, he felt a strong desire to find the true religion or true church.

He started reading, and really liked what he read, so he kept reading until he read the WHOLE thing.  He said that at the end, he read something that Moroni wrote that told him that he had to pray to know if it was true.  I assume that he was referring to Moroni 10:3-5 which says:

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

He said that he prayed and that the holy ghost testified to him that it was true.

That whole experience with the book of Mormon happened BEFORE we even knew him.

Despite having a testimony, Fernando had a great deal of mountains to cross before getting baptized.  At first, he didn´t want to go to church because he didn´t feel worthy. Later, he didn´t want to go to the activities because of his basic fear of crowds and people. Later, he didn´t want to get baptized because he didn´t feel fully repented.  During this month, I have seen Fernando change.  In such a short time, he went from a shy, antisocial, long-haired kid - to the guy with one of the most beautiful testimonies of the Book of Mormon that I have ever heard, but didn´t want to go to church - to the young man who thought that he wasn´t worthy to participate in the atonement of Jesus Christ - the guy that a day before his baptism randomly decided that it would be a good idea to go with the missionaries and get a haircut - the shy kid who didn´t want to leave the bathroom in his baptismal clothing because he was too shy - the new convert who despite his shyness, decided on his own to bear un hermoso testimonio (beautiful testimony) in the baptismal service - the recent convert who went to all 5 sessions of General Conference and has now been interviewed to receive the Aaronic Priesthood.

Two weeks ago, he wouldn´t even look us in the eye when he shook our hands.  Now he goes with us on missionary visits, jokes with the investigators, greets everyone with some-sort of goofy secret handshake, and shares his powerful testimony fearlessly with everybody that we talk to.

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to know and teach Fernando, and I anxiously await the day when I get to hear about his mission call.

-Elder Casdorph