Grown a Foot or Two: A Conquista da Conquist: Vol. 2 Chp. 1

So - it turns out that there was a bit of a misunderstanding, and yes, my pday was only moved for this past week. It will continue to be on monday from now on for as far into the future as I can see. Which is about next week =]

This past week we had our Christmas Conference, so I got to go back to Itabuna for a day! The van that took us there was supposed to arrive at 2am. We didnt get much sleep that night. The van took forever to show up at the chapel ( it didnt show up until 4) and then, just try to imagine being in a van with 12 missionaries. Or better yet 12 boys ages 19-21. They sang the entire way to Itabuna, which means that I didnt sleep barely at all (not to mention I was a little nervous to sleep because I was sitting next to one of the Elders, and I was a little afraid of falling asleep on him, which Sister Andrade said that I almost did). We got there at 7am, and it was great to be with half the mission and hear from the different areas and have a talent show. And then it was back in the van to go back to Conquista, and we got home around midnight. The rest of the week... we had a fight a bit to keep going. But keep going we did.

And our dear friend Nathalia was baptized! Have I ever mentioned how stressful it is to get someone baptised? Its ridiculous. She was supposed to be interviewed and baptised Saturday. So Sister Andrade and I went to the church to fill up the font and there was no water. None whatsoever. We were able to talk to a member and he said he would take came of it. We came back a few hours later and the font was still completely empty. We talked to another member who said he would take care of it. On top of that, we couldnt get a hold of Nathalia all day long until 8pm (turns out we had the wrong cell phone number for her). When I finally did get to talk to her, she asked if we were going to the church that night, and I said no. Her response? ´Well then how am I supposed to get baptized?!` Best thing in the world to hear. We were able to get her to the church to get interviewed, but the baptism had to wait until the next day (which was stake conference). 9pm: the baptismal font is still completely empty. In the morning we call for the member who said he would get it filled and he was very surprised that nothing had been done, but assured us that it would get filled. We showed up at the church 9:30am to see two young men filling the font with buckets. We were finally able to get a hose so that the font could fill during the conference. And who knows why, but the church had a lack of water, and the font was only filled about two feet and the church completely ran out of water. But they said that 2 feet of water was enough. And then we found out that we didnt had a jumpsuit for the baptizer to use... so that took another half hour to figure out. Ridiculous. But Nathalia was baptized, and thats what is most important! They had to try three times, and the final time she had to completely lay down and hook her toes under the bottom step of the font so that her legs would stay submerged =] It is an amazing feeling to watch someone be baptized. Incrível.

And I will be straying here in Conquísta with Sister Andrade this transfer, too! I am excited for that. I will get things figured out for Christmas this next week and give you details next monday. And I have left all my presents wrapped except for the mashmellows that I used last week and the Shout (I was hoping to find chocolate one day, so I opened one package. It turned out to be shout and I desití.)

Love you! Talk to you soon (literally!)

Sister Petersen