April 27, 2015

First off.... HAPPY 51ST BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!

So my whole email is going to based on well..... yesterday.  Sebastian’s baptism was planned to be at 7 pm.  We had everything planned and  it was going to being a perfect day and a smooth baptism.  We arrived at church and I was up front playing the piano like always.  We were expecting that Cristian and Sebastian would be our 2 investigators that came to church.  We were already ten minutes into the meeting and still neither one of them had showed up.  5 minutes before the priesthood passed the sacrament.  Sebastian’s grandma walked in....ALONE.  Sebastian ALWAYS came with her and my heart sunk instantly when I saw that she was alone.  She went and sat behind Elder Brown and started to talk with him and I just saw his face go blank.  I was praying so hard during the sacrament that everything would work out.  As soon as they finished passing, Elder Brown motioned to me to grab my stuff and follow him.  We went out into to the hall and he told me that Sebastian’s mom and grandma had a fight the night before and that she had suddenly changed her mind about the baptism.  Sebastian wasn’t able to come to church because she wouldn’t let him or because he was just too sad.... I am not quite sure.  But the point is that we went running to his house to try and figure out what was up.  He didn’t answer the door.  We knocked, and knocked and KNOCKED but nothing.  We tried saying a prayer and even singing a hymn but no one answered the door.  

   To make things even more crazy, just as we were leaving the church to find Sebastian, Cristian entered the church with his two kids.  We also had an inactive member that came and she was sitting in the chapel alone. We seriously needed like 8 companionships of missionaries to do it all.  After going for Sebastian, we came back and sat with Cristian and they stayed for all 3 hours.  As soon as church ended, we went running to Sebastian’s house again. This time he answered the door.  He explained to us that he still wanted to be baptized super bad and that he didn’t think it was fair that his mom was taking it out on him.  He told us that his mom would come back from work at 4:30 so we told him to keep praying and to be bold with his mom in his desire to be baptized.  We told him that we were going to stop by at 4:30 to work things out.  We called our ward mission leader, Hermano Jorquera, and made plans to go to Sebastian’s house with him at 5.  We got there and at first she said she was busy but after a minute or two of waiting she let us in.  She told us that Sebastian could be baptized but she wasn’t going to go if the grandma was there. (Clearly that is not what Sebastian wanted.)  We continued talking with her trying to help her feel the need to come to support him. Sebastian suddenly stood up and left the apartment.  We kept talking with her for about 5 minutes or so when suddenly Sebastian showed up with his grandma.  He came and sat next to me and said "I hope it was a good idea, I felt like I should do it."  About 10 minutes later, they hugged and made amends and said that the baptism was on!!!! Elder Brown and I had to sprint to the church to fill up the tank.  It was so crazy! We had to fill it up with water from the bathroom and everything we could find to fill the font.

Well to summarize.... I got really down for a little bit yesterday, I didn’t understand why after so much time without baptizing and after so many efforts, it wasn’t going to work out.  I felt like maybe it was something I did or that I didn’t do but should have done.  But Elder Brown and I talked about it and decided that we needed to show our faith and make a miracle happen.  We really did everything we could yesterday and in the end it worked out.  I would also like to point out how Sebastian followed the spirit and went to get his grandma.   Yesterday really was the craziest day of my mission and the whole time I just felt amazed as I watched the Lord carry out His work.  I wish I had more time to tell more details but it looks like it will have to wait for after the mission.  I really don’t feel I deserved the miracle yesterday but it really strengthened my testimony of the work of salvation.  The baptismal service went great and I am super happy that everything worked out.  I have realized that I might not baptize as many people as I might have hoped before the mission, but I can try to do and be my best and learn the lessons that the Lord has for me in the mission.  I love this church, I love the mission and I love my family! Thanks for all you do

Love,

Elder Crofts

Sebastian's baptism

Sebastian's family

Hermano Jorquera baptized him. Such a great guy.

Sebastian followed the Spirit to make it happen

We had a great turnout for the baptism!

Elder Brown made me some nice peanut butter banana pancakes for my b-day. Whatta pal.

I love you Mom. Happy birthday.

Trying to get the water in the font warm.

I made a heart filled breakfast for Elder Brown the other day. 

Hahaha

Sunsets here sure are nice

The Alvarez family

A volcano in south Chile erupted and they evacuated for 20 miles. According to Elder Crofts "We have a bunch of "super Christians" who come up asking us what we think of the signs that are happening. Chile is passing through floods, fires, droughts and now volcanoes."

Happy birthday wishes on the Vina del Mar Mission blog