Elder Joseph Espiritu: Rain and Baptisms in Brown Water

So let's just say this week was full of rain, brown water, and nervousness. But it was all fun and enjoyable!

For those of you who don't know, my last area Laoag is apparently one of the hottest places in the Philippines, so it's always sunny. Now coming to Claveria, I assumed it was going to be the same but I guessed wrong. It rained almost every day this week, aside from one hot day, and I left my umbrella in Laoag. It's alright though, rain can't get me down! It can affect other people coming to church which can be a bummer.

Now a fun little story about teaching, we decided to teach our investigator Dennis and her cousin Joshua about the 10 commandments. I didn't realize how deep the words of the 10 commandments were in Tagalog, so it was a little bit of a struggle. It was fun though, I just ended up using the hand signs I use to remember them. It was challenging but fun to try to explain "though shall not commit adultery" or "thou shall not covet". Fun times though, and I think they figured out what I was saying and Elder Bulado explained it better in the end, (but I am pretty sure the hand signs helped)

This Saturday was a pretty interesting baptism, and didn't go the way I thought it would. It was supposed to start at 2, but Princess (our investigator getting baptized) didn't show up until 2:20 and Dennis didn't show up until 3:00. So the branch president was a little stressed out.

It felt a little rushed during the talks before the baptism but it was alright. The talks were great. Once the talks ended we headed to the baptismal font. To my surprise, (not sure to everyone else’s) the water in the font was brown. I was not used to seeing that but it didn't seem to bother Dennis and Princess, (aside from it being cold) so it was fine, just slightly different.

Princess went first, Alex (her nephew, I know it's weird because he's 19 and she's 16) baptizing her and all went well, (or so I thought) I was in the front as a witness or making sure her whole body was immersed, and I'm sure (and the other witness was) she went in all the way the first time but some of the older sister members said her hand popped out so we did it again. Guess we have to make sure, so we did it again and it was all good.

Then with Joshua and Dennis, it was a slightly bigger struggle. Joshua was slightly nervous during the baptism, so he couldn't figure out the words so we had to do it over a little more than a couple times. He did well, and I understand why he was nervous.

The baptism was still a success, and Dennis and Princess were both happy. The whole experience just reminded me that not everything goes perfect, because we aren't perfect. It's okay to make mistakes, and we have chances to fix our mistakes that we made! All is well and everyone was still happy.

So that about wraps up the highlights of my week, and I hope you all enjoyed this email. I am having quite an experience here in Claveria, but I am enjoying it. I am still adjusting, but I have only been here for 2 weeks, so for 2 weeks I think everything is fine.

Next week I feel will be an adventure and let's see how it all goes! Once again love you all, and miss you all very much!

**you can email Elder Espiritu at joseph.espiritu@myldsmail.net