A Wedding and a Baptism

Well I had tons of emails and I didn't respond to any of them. I will write more personal letters next week. Another week has come and gone in the life of Elder Heaps. An amazing week, but I am drained. This week was super hard. Being senior companion, and planning a wedding and my first baptism was amazing but super stressful, because I really had no idea what I was doing. I am so grateful for the help I had from my companion and the members because without them, I think I might have exploded from stress. Besides this, it was an amazing experience. The Lord really prepared them to be baptized. We had so much help from all the members, several times. The week of the baptism we would go to visit the family, and half the ward would be inside the house helping them prepare for the wedding and baptism. Saturday the day of the baptism we were in the chapel preparing the whole day, and then cleaned until the moment we needed to go to the house. I have never been so grateful for a good night's sleep. God really knew when he made us that we would need a good nights rest to recharge our batteries, and a short escape from the world for 8 hours. The wedding was beautiful and very spiritual. The family wasn't sure if their relatives wanted to come, but almost all of their extended family was there. The family's grandparents could not speak Spanish, but by the end of the baptism, when the Grandparents were leaving, their children´s grandmother came up to me and gave me a very long hand shake, with tears in her eyes, and a smile on her face. She didn't say a thing to me but I could tell she wanted to. As she held her fragile hand in mine I could feel exactly what she wanted to say like a very touching spiritual impression in English. She said ¨Thank you for helping my daughter find her happiness she has looked for all of her life.¨ Never in my life have I been so desperate to speak to someone. I just wanted to talk to her for hours about the gospel, but I couldn't. I really could not be more happy here and Potosí, If president wants to transfer me I think I might say no. Haha I have really been thinking a ton this week about a quote about charity from Thomas S. Monson. I consider charity - or the pure love of Christ - to be the opposite of criticism and judging... I am not speaking of the charity of relief... I have in mind the charity that impels us the be sympathetic, commpasionate, and merciful... charity is love in action. Charity is having patence with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weakness and shortcomings, accepting people as they truly are. One of the hardest things for me is to see people as they really are. Before the mission I had little or no patience with people and their shortcomings. If anything I am learning, it is to love people as they truly are. I have thought a lot of the Savior and the Charity he had not only for the people, but with his apostles. You always hear about the arguments and disscussions his apostles had, but Christ was always loving them and helping them in a loving manner. This quote really helped me realize that charity is not only serving others with Christ like love, charity includes the manner in which we think and feel for others. It is really a blessing to be with Elder Padilla. He is a great help with my spanish. I love his enthusiasm to work and to be better. I have never met someone who complements so much. I don't know where all his compliments come from! haha The other day we were in a lesson with a family, and to get the attention of the little kids he used quotes from Kun fu Panda and then tied it to the scriptures. It was hilarious but it worked perfectly!!! Haha well, I´m just rambling now. I am so drained from the baptism. I hope your week is incredible. I love you all From a very tired Elder Heaps