Funny Baptism

The week went really well again.  We had an interesting experience at our baptismal service on Saturday.  We have been teaching an awesome lady named Sueli.  She used to drink a lot.  Every day she would drink a bottle of "cachaça" which is basically the same thing as the ethanol that they put in cars here.  But a month ago her grandson was born, and she decided to stop drinking suddenly.  Since then we have been working with her to stop smoking and teaching her all about the gospel.  Actually, she had already been taught by missionaries before, but she was really drunk the whole time so she didn’t remember anything.  Saturday was her baptism, and she was very excited.  She told us before that she has a phobia of water and was a little worried, but we assured her that everything would be fine and that the water would be nice and warm and we would be there to help her the whole time.  On Saturday morning though, we found out that the gas tank that heats the water in the church building ran out.  The weather has been surprisingly cold, so the water for the baptism was super cold as well.  We decided that it would be better to not tell her about the problem and go through with the baptism as planned.  The service went really well until the part where she would be baptized.  First, Elder Queiroz got into the water and waited for Sueli to follow.  She put one foot in and said, "Oh no! Its icy cold! I won’t be baptized today in this water!" Elder Queiroz grabbed her arm and pulled her a little so that she would step down more,  ”Oh you boys (she calls us "boys" not elders) said it would be hot!" Elder Queiroz kept pulling her until the water was at her waist. She was screaming quietly the whole time, "Oh my! Mercy! Ah!"  Her sister, who is a member, told her to be quiet, but she responded quickly, "But the boys said the water would be nice!!"  Elder Queiroz explained to her that he would baptize her.  "Are you kidding? I have to lay down in this water? Queiroz please..." He said the prayer and baptized her as she let out a little scream going into the water.  There were a lot of members there.  Lots
of them just trying to hold back their giggles.  She was confirmed yesterday and now is very happy.  She said she feels so clean and pure.  It was totally worth the cold water.

I’m excited to talk with all of you this week!  It’ll be great to see everyone.  I’ll probably try to call you at 3 o’clock Brazil time.  I think that will be best for us here.  I hope you have a great week.

Elder Marsh