Dear Family,
This has been a great past week here in Donna, with my first baptism actually happening Sunday for Hector. I have a few pictures from the baptism, but I always have trouble getting pictures off this camera for some reason. I guess I'll try again next week because I'm running out of time for emailing.
The baptismal service went over well with a high attendance from the ward and a good bit of Hector's family in attendance as well. I gave the talk on baptism, a member, Hermano Cabrera gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Elder Navarro performed the baptism. My talk went over pretty well, even though it was in Spanish. The talk given by Hermano Cabrera's talk went well, but Elder Navarro had a bit of trouble with the baptism. The first time he said the prayer he made a mistake in Spanish, so the second time he was more focused on his words than he was on where he was holding Hector. He managed to give him a big thunk on the head against the wall going into the water. The whole ward in attendance let out a big, "awwwww", but Hector took it with a good heart and has already forgiven Elder Navarro for his negligence. The refreshments afterwards were good, with a cake bought by the Cabrera family. Hermano Carrasco, a baker in our ward, made a large batch of cookies. All went over well, and I believe it was a great experience for Hector and for his family as well.
Cindy Carrizales and the kids are doing well, but we were only able to meet with them a few times this week. We actually met with them on Cesar's birthday, so I went to a bakery and bought him a piece of cake and afterwards we watched the Restoration movie. during the movie, Cesar managed to make another random comment that left me laughing pretty hard. When Joseph Smith started praying in the movie, and the choir starts singing and the light gets really bright, he piped up and said nonchalantly, "God's coming". That kid has given me some pretty funny quotes to think about whenever I teach the first lesson again.
The only other story I have from this week really isn't actually a story of mine, but something that happened down in Brownsville, another area in my mission. In Mexico this past week, one of the leaders of the gangs there was killed by the government. This got the gangs really mad. So this past week the violence in Mexico has been kicking up with more gunfights and other incidents. One of the fights this past week was very close to the U.S. border, near Brownsville, and the gunfire was bad enough that some of the stray bullets were coming over into this side of the border. A college in Brownsville had to close their campus because the bullets in and shattering windows and hitting walls. No one was hurt, I believe, but it's just weird to get a reminder that the war in Mexico is not far away at all. As missionaries we never see the bad things that go on in town since everybody just leaves us alone, which is definitely a blessing. I'm glad to hear that Elder Christensen has some form of protection in California as well!
I'm glad Mom is having a good experience with missionary work in Virginia. I hope that they will continue to be able to come and hear about the Gospel. Hopefully, soon they'll realize that they can find an answer for themselves from God, because as soon as they have that answer, the rest will come quickly and easily.
I hope everyone will continue to do well or improve and also have a great Thanksgiving week! Missionaries here typically have 3 -5 Thanksgiving meals because different families have different times they plan to eat. I'll have to start warming up my stomach for this Thursday. Hopefully, I'll be ready and able to make it through the marathon of meals. Have a good week and start thinking of things you can be grateful to the Lord for on Thanksgiving day!
Love,
Elder Wood
