What's Up?

Dear Family and Friends,

Yet another amazing week has come and gone. This weekend we had the opportunity to baptize Rosario Lobos who is an elderly lady and a mom of a recent convert to the church. It was an amazing baptism and she was so happy. As she came up out of the water she started to cry and felt the Spirit so strong. She is a strong and brave women. She went through trials to get to her baptism. One of her daughters sent her grandaughters over to her house to plead with her not to get baptized. She was devastated but said that she had received an answer from God and she knew it was true! What faith huh?

I had a very spiritual experience this week. There is a young girl name Sheila in one of the areas called Caucete in our zone. She is a precious little nine year old but she has the maturity of an adult. She has been forced to go through adult decisions and circumstances throughout her life. Her mother has recently had major surgeries for cancer and so she has been basically left to her brother and father to take care of her. Much of the time they both are working so she is alone with her suffering mother. Her greatest desire is to be baptized to follow the example of Jesus Christ but she wants more than anything for her mother to be there. Her mother has not been able to walk for a few months because of her sickness. I met this girl a few months ago and at that time her mother was in even worse condition. At that time I did the baptismal interview with her. I saw so much faith in this little girl I could scarse believe it. She prayed so sincerely and tenderly I listened in the spirit of admiration. She wanted her mother to get better more than anything. The missionaries at that time, in November, and even until last week had never been permited to see the mother because of her condition. My companion and I were thinking of ways we could still help her get baptized while her mom was present at the baptism. We thought of a way and I was privelged to go again and try to talk to the mother.

As we entered she didnt want us to see her until later that night so we waited until until later and then came back. The mother was frail and pale, but to our astonishment was able to walk again and for the first time in 5 months leave her room(excepting the times where she went to the hospital) She was so nice and was so excited for her daughter to take that decision. To her daughter´s excitement, she committed to go to the baptism and to do her best efforts to come back to church. I redid the baptisimal interview and was again shocked at the faith of this girl. She told me about her life and the trials she was facing. She cried and spoke of her mother and how much she loved her and wanted her to get better. I was touched to my very soul. She said ´´I have a lot of faith in God and I know that his purpose is to help people because he loves us.´´ I imagine I felt as Christ when he spoke of the faith of the centurion when he said, ´´I have not found so great faith, no, not in aIsrael. (Luke 7:6-10). As we finished she prayed with such simplicity and tenderness I felt as if she knew God was there with us. It was so sweet and pure I couldn´t stop thinking of it for days. I know that God lives and that he loves his Children. I was a witness of how much he loved his precious daughter, Sheila.
Have a great week I love you all!

Sincerely,
Elder Passantino