I thought I would start out my letter this week with the bad news. Something tragic happened recently, and it´s really difficult to say...but I found out that I am definitely, 100% without a doubt lactose intolerant. I´ve been sick for a really long time, not horribly, but just uncomfortably sick. As in I just never feel normal. We don´t need to go into details on that one, but last week or the week before, some members gave us ice cream and pancakes for the birthday of my companion, and as I was eating the ice cream I thought, "Holy cow. I bet it´s this stuff that makes me sick." I didn´t finish the ice cream that night, because it kind of freaked me out. Then I avoided milk the next few days, and I felt a little better. Then a few days ago I forgot, and drank a whole glass of delicious chocolate milk, and I felt soooo sick afterward. That was just kind of my evidence that it´s real. Lactose intolerance....who does that sound like? Sorry mother, but I am blaming you for this curse. But it´s better that I know now, I already told my pension so she´s not going to give me milk or lactose or anything. No yogurt, no butter, no milk, no ice cream,no happiness....
The good news is that means all the fat I´ve gained from eating stuff like that might start to slowly go away! Blessings in disguise.
Well, this week was really great. I don´t really know where to begin explaining it. But I just had a few things I wanted to tell you.
So Luis FINALLY got baptized!!! He got baptized yesterday after all of the meetings. Before I tell you about that, though, I wanted to explain what happened first. So since Luis had a few things he needed to get sorted out, he had an interview with the President of the mission, President Ardila. President Ardila is seriously the best, I wish we could send all of our investigators to meet him
because he is just so wise. But Luis had his interview, and was just SO happy. He just looked so so happy, the kind of happiness that you can´t explain but you see in someone´s face. We took him to go walk around the temple, since it´s right across the street from the mission office, and he didn´t say much, he just walked really slow with this subtle but significant smile on his face. He´s been talking about that day so much - he really loved it. While we were at the temple, I saw one of the hermanos from my first area, Surco. He is from one of my favorite families that I´ve met in my whole mission - Hermano Joseph is his name. I was so happy to see him that I almost cried. It was such a crazy moment for me, because even though it hasn´t been THAT long since I was in Surco, it feels like a lot has happened since then. As we walked back to catch a bus all the way back to Cieneguilla, we were literally all just floating on our own little clouds, Luis just so excited to get baptized and really happy about his decision. Hermana Ponce and I just so happy to see that he was so happy. It was really a special moment,and I am really bad at explaining, sorry.
But anyway, the baptism was so special. I have seen a lot of baptisms in my life, and I even got to
participate in one once, but this one just really impacted me. Luis has lived such a difficult life, and he has really changed so much in the short amount of time that we have known him. The gospel of Jesus Christ does that - it doesn´t say that we need to become different people so that God loves us more; it says that as we come to know God and learn to accept Him in our lives, we want to change. In order to grow and progress in life, it´s impossible to NOT change. Luis has experienced that so much in this short amount of time. You can see it so clearly in his face; in the way he acts and talks. It´s really humbling to be able to see it and know that I didn´t really do anything. As we sang the opening hymn at his baptism, "How Great Thou Art" he started crying and just looked up at the cieling, tears rolling down his face. It was so powerful to see that, and when he bore his testimony after he was actually baptized, he just talked about how he had always waited for this day. He didn´t know what exactly he was waiting for while he was waiting, but that he knows he has found it.
Last night, I was praying before I went to sleep. A thought came to mind, and I wanted to share it. As
missionaries, we don´t have this special time set aside in our lives to be smarter or have a greater
knowledge of the scriptures than other people so that with our words we can convert all the people we meet. Our oportunity isn´t to be smarter or have greater knowledge, but we have this great oportunity to FEEL more. I think that´s what it is. We feel so much. A lot of sadness, sometimes discouragement, a lot of indescribable happiness, a whole lot of love, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We feel a lot, but it doesn´t mean than we know much. What I´m trying to say is that because we have this oportunity to feel so much, we can be a little, teeny tiny part of someone´s conversion. I can see that Luis is converted to the gospel, but I know that God did all of that work. God has worked through us, we have felt it, and Luis has been able to feel it as well and let God work through him.
I am really happy out here. I miss you guys, and I hope you are happy in what you are doing as well. Enjoy this week, and I will be talking to you soon!
With every last little piece of my amor,
Hermana Michelle Scott
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