Two Options Right Here

Let’s start off with some exciting news. We baptized the niece of Presidente Compa. WOO! That was really cool. And do you remember the Sound of Music family? Yeah, the family of like 11 kids. Well, this week three of the kids got baptized. The parents are working to get married so that they too can be baptized. It is just that it’s not custom here and it’s a pain in the neck to get all that paper process. There is even a blood compatibility test to see if your kids will turn out fine… Yeah, it’s kind of hilarious how difficult it all is. It’s like a six-month process. The oldest son also plans on getting baptized in a little bit, he just wants it to be his decision not because his brothers and sisters are being baptized. But yay! That was a grand miracle.

The father has such a great personality. He works extremely hard on the Banana plantation to support his family and he gets paid a lot less than he should. Right before payday, they ran out of money. And so, they were praying as a family and they found five dollars in one of the kid's textbooks but what he did with the money left a great impression on me. There were some nights where they went to bed without dinner and some days without breakfast. With the little money he had left over, he ended up making dinner for his family and us. When he made us dinner it was quite a bit which would have fed his five children breakfast that morning. He insisted because he said nothing is more important than serving the Lord and he felt that by serving us it was the closest he was going to get to serve the Lord. That was a very very humbling experience.

Also, this week we were teaching a Ngobe family. A grandmother and her two daughters. The grandmother speaks Spanish as a second language as do most her age.  It was a little bit tricky as she was also hard of hearing.  Halfway through the lesson, the grandmother bursts out, “Wait, are you married?” So I’m like “Umm… No...” But before I could say anything else she responds “Oh, Okay, because you know you’ve got two options right here” motioning to her daughters. Oh, my companion was dying, I pulled up my scriptures to cover my mouth. A bit later, the grandmother went on. “Wait wait wait… What is your name again?” I started by saying, “Elder” and I thought the grandmother had something witty to say, but her daughter chimes in “Wow, what a beautiful name, I think I’ll name my next child that…” Oh, help me.