Mario was baptized

Mario's baptism

WE DIDN'T REALIZE IT WAS EASTER ON SUNDAY! Does that make us bad missionaries? We just kept getting different answers of when Easter was and so for some reason we didn't realize it until the day after. Maybe the baptism that day excuses us of that? Anyhow the baptism was super awesome!!! Mario knows exactly what this covenant is that he's making with God and he's super excited about it. Putting together the baptism itself was kind of stressful for us, but it was awesome to see how much the ward was excited by his baptism! The bishop was literally GIDDY. He started telling us that he wants Mario to be the next Elders Quorum president within the next few months and I don't doubt it, he's really that special. Also, later on that day our mission president called us to congratulate and thank us for completing a family. At first we were really confused by this, but it turns out that Mario's wife was baptized when she was 12 and when Mario was baptized she called the missionaries that taught her, and they called someone who called our mission president. We had no idea she was a member!!! She was always busy when we passed by to teach Mario, so we never got to know her, but now we know the next step is to help them become an eternal family.

We're super lucky to have been able to teach Mario. Also we're really excited to watch General Conference this weekend! (I believe I'll be watching in English)

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Birrell

Slacklining on p-day

Our mission president, President Videla, asked us to write up a summary of our experience with Mario to put in the weekly newsletter as the "success story" of the week.

It's in Spanish, but hopefully Google Translate can do an ok job.

Bueno,

Hace dos meses y medio atrás nosotros hicimos una actividad de zona y una de las referencias que recibimos, encontramos Hermano Mario, su esposa Yemesi en cual es miembro de la iglesia hace muchos años y se bautizó cuando era joven, su hija Romina y su hijo Tomás. La primera vez que nosotros pasamos a visitarles, nos aceptaron en su casa y nosotros empezamos a conocerles. Al empezar a enseñarles invitamos a toda la familia escucharnos, pero solo Mario quería y ni siquiera sabíamos que su señora era miembro de la iglesia, porque no compartió mucho con nosotros cuando estábamos en su casa o no estaría cuando pasábamos. No supimos hasta más adelante que era miembro. Pero en esta ejemplo Dios nos muestra que prepara las personas y que realmente nosotros somos las herramientas en sus manos. Entonces empezamos a compartir el Evangelio de Jesucristo con él. Después la segunda o tercera visita nosotros llevamos un miembro para ayudarnos hermanar y compartir su testimonio. En esta visita le ayudamos a Mario entender y comprender la importancia de la oración en la conversión y le invitamos esta noche a orar para saber si esta es la iglesia correcta, si José Smith es un Profeta de Dios y si él restauró el Evangelio de Jesucristo aquí en la tierra de nuevo, y si el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios. Después de dejarle esta noche, Le dijimos que íbamos a pasar el día siguiente para verificar como le fuera. 

          Llegamos el próximo día y el nos dijo que sí había recibido la respuesta y que esta era el camino correcto. De esta momento y adelante empezamos a ver mucho progreso, pero sabíamos que no estaban casados. En nuestra planificación semanal nosotros decidimos que sí o sí le íbamos a enseñar la ley de castidad el más pronto posible. Cuando nosotros le íbamos a pasar el folleto de la ley de castidad, él nos contó que se iban a casar. Esta fue tan genial para nosotros porque ni siquiera habíamos dicho algo a ellos de la ley de castidad. Y el día cinco de marzo se casaron. 

          En todo el proceso de la conversión de Mario nosotros vimos mucho progreso y había muchas veces cuando él nos compartió experiencias cuando sintió el espíritu. Él es realmente un hombre de Dios muy especial, cada lección que tenemos con él, el espíritu es muy presente y siempre tiene algo bueno para compartir o una pregunta para que pueda entender aun más de las cosas de Dios.  Y por fin, después de dos meses y medio Mario pudo bautizarse el 27 de marzo y ahora él y su familia pueden prepararse a ir al templo para llegar a ser una familia eterna. 

Translated version

Bueno,
 Two and a half months ago we had a zone activity and one of the references we received, we found Brother Mario, his wife Yemesi which had been a member of the church for many years and was baptized when she was young, her daughter Romina and her son Thomas. The first time we visited them, they accepted us into their home and we began to know them. When we first started teaching them we invited the whole family to listen, but only Mario wanted to learn and we didn't even know that his wife was a member of the church because he did not share much with us when we were at their home or when we would stop by. We did not know until later that she was a member. But this example shows us that God prepares people and we are really tools in their hands. Then we began to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him. After the second or third visit we took a member to help friendship and share their testimony. On this visit we helped Mario understand the importance of prayer in the conversion and invite him that night to pray to know if this is the right church, if Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and if he restored the gospel of Jesus Christ here on earth again, and if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. After leaving tonight, I said we would spend the next day to check how it was.
          We arrived the next day and we said yes had received the answer and that this was the right way. From this time forward we began to see a lot of progress, but we knew they were not married. In our weekly schedule we decided that we were going to teach the law of chastity as soon as possible. When we were going to share the booklet about the law of chastity, he told us that they were getting married. This was so great for us because we had not even said anything to them about the law of chastity. They got married on March 5.
          Throughout the process of conversion of Mario we saw a lot of progress and there were many times when he shared with us experiences when he felt the spirit. He really is a very special man of God, every lesson we have with him, the spirit is very present and always has something good to share or a question so that you understand even more of the things of God. And finally, after two and a half months Mario was baptized on March 27 and now he and his family can prepare to go to the temple to become an eternal family.