Hola a todos!
If I'm being totally honest, not much happened this week. Huercal-Overa is a TINY little town, and so not much goes on, especially with such a small teaching pool and the small branch. But some really BIG things happened that were very exciting for me.
First off, one if the young men in our tiny little branch named David just got set apart for missionary service. He will be serving in the Dominican Republic, and he is totally stoked. It was pretty interesting to see his experience, and seeing a lot of what I experienced when I was first set apart like him. He was absolutely TERRIFIED just like me, but once he was set apart you could really see the calm settle over him and how he knew he was in the right place. He's a super awesome kid, and, even though I've only been here for about 2 and a half weeks, I'm so sad to see him go. Crazy things happen when you're a missionary, and one of them is, for some reason, God blesses you with a really intense love for the people you serve.
The second thing is something much bigger. I officially have had my first baptism in the mission!!!! Well, kind of. Carmen already had her baptismal date when I came in and so we just worked to prepare her, but it was incredible to see baptism and how somebody just GLOWS afterward. Also, I think for the first time in history the baptismal water was TOO hot! It was a little hard for her to get in, and when she was baptized, she seemed a little shocked. But Carmen has incredible faith. She's already a strong member of the branch, and she's planning in bringing her family from Colombia into the church as well. After she was confirmed on Sunday, she couldn't stop smiling. The power of the Holy Ghost is real folks. She totally had the Light of Christ around her.
Other than that, not much is going on! We're just trying to teach and find, and we'll hopefully have some more interesting stories next week.
¡Cristo vive! ¡El Libro de Mormón es verdadero!
¡Os amo!
Elder Ritter
Fotos:
Campo
Glasses
Baptism
Pic from zone conference that I like