This was a very special week.

April 4, 2016

Hello family!

This was a very special week. One, for general conference, and two, because the R family got baptized.

The whole week we were preparing for general conference and the baptism. There´s a little cultural difference here in El Salvador. For general conference we always see it in the church. No one sees it in their house. Last Sunday the branch president had announced that we were going to see it in the stake center (Apopa), about a 45 minute bus ride away. But we knew that if we went over there neither the members nor the investigators would go. And also we knew that possibly Yand E (the R family) would be baptized on Saturday, and if we were in Apopa that would make it very difficult.

So we proposed to President R that we should watch general conference here in Aguilares. The problem was that he was going to be working on Saturday so we offered to put everything together. So we spend the whole week looking for someone who could lend us a laptop, extension chords, etc. We also had to let all the members know that we were going to see it in Aguilares now.

At the beginning of the week, it wasn´t completely sure that the R family would be able to be baptized because Y and E didn´t have much family support and because we hadn´t been able to find them for about a week. But we proceeded with faith. On Thursday we arrived to do their baptism interview. They passed the interviews, but there was one problem. Yanira didn´t think that her husband would give them permission to be baptized. He is almost always working and doesn´t get home until late. They live far away and buses only run until 6 o-clock. But we decided to wait. It was long after dark when he arrived. But we were able to talk to him and he give them his permission. We called an investigator with a car and he gave us a ride.

Saturday we had to get up really early. We were in the chapel from 7 in the morning until 8:00 at night. The baptism font here is not a normal font. There is some assembly required. And we also had to set up for general conference.

But everything worked out. They got baptized after the afternoon session on Saturday. It was a very special day.

General conference was great. The members were amazing. We had 11 investigators in the conference and the members brought 10 of them. I´ve never had that many in church before. Members truly are powerful missionaries.

I love you all!

Elder Hilton