Drama in the Amazon

(Note from dad:  I try not to edit Haley’s posts too much, but you can tell her Spanish is getting better…because her English is getting worse.)

The mission is great. We are having so much success right now. Crazy story!

Stock photo of a motokar

We have an investigator named Gressy. She had a date for yesterday to get baptized and she was going to get married on Saturday. Friday night we had a Joseph Smith night and watched the hour long movie (really cool in Spanish).  While we were in the church, her fiancé’s little brother came in to play soccer. He left the motokar outside the church. Ten minutes playing and the motokar got stolen. It was a huge source of income for the family and they don´t have much.

Saturday, we went to make sure that they were still going to have a wedding and to make sure Henry (the little brother) was OK. We got there and everybody was getting ready for the wedding and making jokes about the stolen motokar. We were helping with the cake when the robbers showed up asking for ransom.

We left.

The family didn´t have the money for the ransom so they don´t have transportation or 1/2 their income. When they got to the church for the wedding they were so happy and excited. The only problem was, we didn´t have a judge. We called and called and called but nobody answered. Finally, we get a hold of Hna Inez, the lady who helps with weddings.  It turns out that the mother of the judge died 20 minutes before the wedding and he wasn´t going to come. They were sending another judge. Two hours after the wedding was supposed to start a judge came. He was a little tipsy.

After all of that, they were finally married and we got super cute pictures. 

Sunday morning and we have 2 baptisms scheduled; one for Gressy and the other for our golden Graciela. Graciela showed up 40 minutes late and the ward mission leader didn´t have white pants. We ran all over town looking for Elders with white pants. Finally found them and then go back to the church. Sacrament is starting in 20 minutes and we are still waiting to start the baptism. We get everybody ready and realize that Gressy isn´t there. SHE DIDN’T SHOW UP! We are all sorts of upset and after church we go to find Gressy. Turns out that she had a C section when her baby was born but they didn´t do a great job of making sure everything was in the right order and she wore heels at her wedding; the poor girl couldn´t even stand. Her date got moved to this Saturday.  

Crazy right? Wow! This week coming up is going to be nuts too. Pray for us.