Noche en Blanca incident

Dear Family,

How are you all this week?  I had a great first week in Salado 2.  

This week was Stake Conference.  They tried to plan a lot of fellowshipping stuff for the investigators after the conference, but I don’t think it was planned too well.  They wanted to have a large baptismal service (Noche en Blanca) shortly after conference so that many of the investigators could attend and have a positive experience with baptism.  Most of the investigators already acquainted with the church and our activities were wise enough to run for the hills when they heard there was going to be a non-member focused activity after the meetings.  So, the only people they roped in were the people whose first exposure to the church was this conference.  Since most of these people showed up unexpected, nobody knew who most of them were.  

We herded them into a back room to try and sort them out and assign them a missionary until we realized the baptismal font was flooding the entire chapel.  A bishop from another ward tried entertaining the investigators by handing out free Young Women stationary and seminary study materials while about 12 missionaries from our zone ran around the chapel trying to stop the flooding.  I guess some member had turned on the font pump during stake conference to get it ready for the Noche en Blanca but they locked the compartment that had access to the pump knob.  They forgot to turn off the pump, so we had to fill up buckets from the font and then flush them in the bathroom to stop the water from continuing to spill into the halls.  It was lots of excitement.  I felt bad for the investigators.  During the commotion, most of them had looks on there faces saying "Why can’t I go home?  Is the flooding serious?  Will someone please tell me what is happening?”  After we cleaned up, we had a nice baptismal service.

Anyway, we have a few people who are progressing.  The first is Vicente. He’s had a rough past few weeks so he’s been hard to get a hold of, but he’s certainly confident in his decision to join the church.  We are also working with familia Buenaño.  They have a long time in the program but have finally accepted a baptismal date and are also ready to be members.  They all were able to come to conference and enjoyed the experience. (although none of them witnessed the Noche en Blanca incident)  We have one or two other families that we have only visited once or twice, but we hope they’ll continue to progress.  Well, I’m sorry.  I guess this kind of sounds like my carta to presidente (weekly letter to the mission president).  

I talked with Elder Carnese.  He is the mission secretary which I guess means he is the only office missionary.  President Montalti thinned the office staff out a little bit.  Elder C was glad to hear I knew Forest Grove and asked me if I knew an ice cream place there. That is my report.

Elder Fares’s camera is damaged, too, but we usually go out with Elder Kartchner and Ayundia and they have cameras.  I haven’t been able to get my camera fixed.  You should know there is a new mission policy that we can only have permission to leave our zone once every transfer so most p-days we have to just hang around Salado 2. Guayaquil is not as great for P-day excursions as Cuenca.

How is everyone doing in the new school year?  I’m kind of disappointed I won’t be receiving any pictures today from the famfam.

Well, talk to you all soon.  

love brother nanito