Elder Tanner Clement, 12-03-2013

Hola! 

You asked where my new companion is from, Elder Alvarez is from the state of Tamaulipus, Mexico. He is really great and he knows the scriptures well. We don't have transfers until the 23rd of December (which is rather unfortunate as I may or may not spend Christmas with all of these great people here in Los Mochis, but I believe. Oh I want to stay here another exchange so badly. We are so close with so many people). I have not picked up any packages yet but we will be having the Zone Conference this Thursday and I believe I will receive them then. 

So there I was, typing in the Ciber, when all of the sudden, the phone rang. I was thinking "hmmm... who could be calling us?" But in spanish, so more like, "Ay... ¿Quién podría ser que está marcándonos?" I answered. Rosario told me that she could be baptized the next day! Woohoo! We were so excited for her! But there were a few problems. 1) It is preferred that there is a member of the bishopric present during a baptismal service but they all said they had to work far away the next day. 2) We need to fill the font and be in the building while it is full (regulation) and it takes a while. 3) We did not have baptismal clothes and our only hope had school and we could not contact her. 4) Her baptismal interview happened about a month previous and we weren't sure if it was still valid.

Miracle 1) The bishop and one of his counselors were able to come from work for a few minutes. 2) We had the district meeting in the church that day so we were able to clean the font a bit before and study and have the meeting while it was filling up. 3) We called some Zone Leaders from the Los Mochis zone (we are actually in a different zone with little towns outside of Los Mochis) and they said they had baptismal clothes. 4) We called the president and talked with him about the situation and he said it was fine to baptize her (I was impressed by this because neither of her parents are members and that is pretty much a requirement for youth these days. Also because an interview is valid for one month and it was one month ago to the day that the interview was conducted). 5) The sister missionaries knew which buses we could take that would take us directly to the other church to pick up the baptismal clothing and we saw them on the way back and so they showed us how to get back to our church. 6) We arrived just in time to organize everything. 7) The baptismal clothes fit perfectly. 8) Really probably the biggest miracle is that her mom said it was ok for her to get baptized because it was her birthday. Her mom was randomly against the church right before her other baptism but she softened her heart and said it was ok. Rosario got baptized. Horrah for Israel!! We were so happy for her! 

Sorry I don't have much time left because we have to start again at 6:00 and we got here a bit late to write but we have found many new people to teach and a new method to teach members that we need them to help us. That's right, we are using the M&M method. Booya. We put about 15 M&Ms in a bowl face down that represent the world in darkness. We then take two brown M&Ms (the missionaries) and drop them from above. When the M&Ms flip to the 'M' side up, they are members (and the person who dropped the Elders can eat it but we don't do that in real life). We then continue dropping the Elders for a bit. Then we change it up and say that when you flip an M&M, you can still eat it, but we are going to replace it with a brown one and you can use it also with the Elders. This is an example of the work together as it works so much better when you are dropping 10 brown M&Ms. I love you guys! Thanks for all of your support! 

Elder Clement