February 19, 2009

Well, Andreia didn't get baptized on Sunday. We finally got her to go to the baptism interview, and so on Friday night I did a division with Elder McArthur so he could interview her, and Elder Rodrigo went with Elder Do Nascimento to the Assistants area. We picked her up at her house and got on the bus to go to the chapel. Everything went perfectly; when she came out of the interview I went over to see how it had gone and she said, "I'm going to be baptized on Sunday." I was thrilled.
On Saturday night when Elder Rodrigo and I went to accompany her she had completely changed ideas. She was resisting everything we said. She knows it's true, and insists that she WILL be baptized, just not now. It was really disappointing.
On Sunday, we decided that she needed to see a baptism, so we skipped out of church half an hour early, and one of the members of the stake high council brought us (Andreia, her member friend Erika and us missionaries) to the other ward where the assistants go and where they happened to be having a baptism at noon.
The baptism was awesome; the Spirit was fantastic and she loved it. But she continued with the same story about wanting to wait. We even gave her baptismal clothing to bring home and pray about and get ready for her baptism that night. But she resisted.
On Sunday night at 8:00 she called us and said, "I want to be baptized."
I was maaadd. If she had called an hour earlier, we could have arranged something with the Bishop and some of the members, but at 8:00 at night it was too late for us to do anything, and we were way far away from the chapel.
When we went back on Monday to talk to her, she had decided she wants to wait until after Carnaval (which is this weekend, by the way). She's driving us crazy!!
We went to eat at this Chinese place yesterday with the assistants and invited her and Erika, and we decided not to even mention baptism or church or anything, because it seems like the more we push the more she resists. The person who talked most about baptism yesterday was her! She kept asking us all about how many people we had baptized in our missions haha.
So anyway, keep those prayers a-comin'. I'll be so grateful when she is finally baptized. Elder Rodrigo and I were talking the other day about how she's the kind of person that you want to help not because of numbers or goals, but because it'll be fun to hang out after this life. She has even talked about serving a mission already. She's not even a member yet!
The other night I was talking to this guy on the bus and he kept asking me if I was German, or Croatian. And I noticed he was constantly sniffing a dirty white rag that he had crumpled up in his hand. He was definitely high- it was one of the stranger conversations I've had.
Love,
Elder Sisco