February 24, 2014 -- first Baptism!

Hola Mis Amores!!

This week has been so incredibly fantastic! So many blessing and milagros and just.. it’s been great. 

First of all, we got to go to the temple! Totally don’t want to rub it in anyone’s face, but that makes 8 now ;) It was so amazing. So beautiful. The Spirit was so strong. As always (: The Celestial room was pretty huge.. And so stinking beautiful. I just look forward to July when I get to go back! 

Also, CARLOS WAS BAPTIZED! Okay, this was actually super stressful because it was the first baptism for both Hermana and me. So a lot of things were done pretty last minute. But we were very blessed to have everything work out in the end. We had a great number of ward members who showed up and had 2 discursos about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. Oh my gosh. Carlos is so adorable. He is so sweet. He got up and bore his testimony to us afterwards and I was just in love. He was confirmed a member in sacrament meeting yesterday and his daughter came as well! It was so great. We got to share a little about the gospel with her and the purpose of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

But when we were calling people to see if they could give talks, we called a woman named Sister Bradley who is from Columbia but her husband speaks no English. They were just married a few years ago and she was baptized I think like 15 years ago. But he just got baptized a year ago. Anyway, Sister Bradley's son, Carlos, had just moved in with her from Columbia and her daughter, Ingrid, is visiting until March 8. So last Thursday as we were calling her, she told us she wouldn’t be able to make it but that she wanted us to come teach her children. She told us she wants them to get baptized together before Ingrid leaves and she says, "So how do we go about doing this?" haha We have taught them 3 times and they have both accepted our invitation to be baptized on March 5th!! They are both so ready. Before we even asked, they started talking about baptism. So far they understand the need for prophets and the Book of Mormon and are accepting everything super well. Carlos has a few really good questions but I can tell it’s because he’s interested. So we are way excited for them! 

Really this week was so great. The Lord is really helping us out. I have seen that the harder we strive to be the best examples for His church that we can, we will be blessed. I am so grateful for this incredible opportunity to share the truth and the way we can return to our Father in Heaven :)

I love you all so much! 

Hermana Halverson

P.S. As far as living conditions... My apartment is super nice. And the church takes care of us so well. BUT we had a huge water leak and didn't know about it til the bill came into the church and they had to come down and fix it because our bill was like 9Xs higher than it should have been... And the weather is crazy! Recently we've seen a lot more lightening. And it rains just about every 2 or 3 days here. But I love it. This is the place for me. At least until the rainy season is over.. haha During June/July/August every one talks about how hot it gets and how humid it is.. So things might get a little more difficult. But I'm still excited! What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right? (:

 At Carlos' baptism.  (Note the tall missionary on the far right.  He's the AP

 (Assistant to the President) and is 6'9"!!)

At the Orlando, Florida temple.