Baptisms and Bubble Gum

Wow, a lot has happened this week.  Holy cow, the Lord trusts me a lot.  Haha.  I´ll explain why.

First of all, we did have the baptism!!!  Oh my goodness, it was fantastic.  They got there, the judge came from Asunción to marry them, that went well, they got baptized afterwards, and then we all ate cake.  Man, it is something incredible to baptize a whole family.  It´s not like baptizing a single person.  They both feel great, of course.  But it´s different with whole families.  Who knows how many generations will be affected by the decision of these 2 people.  The dad - Domingo - and the mom - Suni - got married, and then they got baptized with ther 11-year-old son Marcos.  I baptized Domingo and then Elder Martinez baptized Suni and Marcos.  It went really well.  Well, once it all got going it went well.  We had to work hard for that baptism, oh goodness.  Ok so.  Our baptismal font is like a small-ish plastic swimming pool, it´s outside it´s not built into the chapel.  It´s pretty old, so it has broken in the corners and been repared.  There weren´t any problems with it during the baptism of Mari and Evelyn in June.  But this time wasn´t the same.  The water pressure is reeeally weak here, so we have to start filling the font the day before or it won´t fill up in time.  So Wednesday morning Elder Martinez and I went to the church and cleaned the whole thing out and scrubbed it down nice and squeaky clean.  We went to fill it, but there was no hose, there´s only the faucet.  So we had to go buy a hose.  And
then we get there, put the hose on, go to open the valve, and it just unscrews right off and water doesn´t come out.  So we have to go to the restaurant next door and borrow their pliers to open the faucet.  We finally get that going and start filling the font.  We go back later that day and everything is fine.  No leaks, the water is still going, no problems.  We go back Thursday morning (the day of the marriage and baptism) to make sure everything is well and where the water level is.  Well we get there and the whole patio is soaked.  The font sprung a leak under the weight of the water.  Ugh.  It was already halfway full, but losing water faster than it

was being filled.  We had about 5 hours before the baptism, so we went to the hardware place to see if he had anything to seal it with.  Everything they have, it needs to be dry to be able to use it.  So unless we drained the font, dried it, sealed the leak, and then filled it again - which we couldn´t do with only 5 hours, there would be barely any water - it wouldn´t work.  So after thinking out our options, we decided on our last resort of solutions.  We used gum.  Hahaha!  We bought like 6 packs of gum, chewed it up as fast as we could, swung by the house to get me some shorts, and I got in the font with my shorts and filled that sucker with gum.  And it worked!  It worked fantastically, there was barely any water leaking out.  Wow, it was so hectic, but we got it done.  And nobody even noticed that there was gum haha.  So it went well.

Second is not so good of news.  There is a soccer club right next to the house we rent out for a chapel.  They have been talking with the owner of the house who owns our chapel and the land it´s on, and they sold the property to this soccer club.  We have 2 months to find a new place to rent out and have our reunions and move everything there.  I´m freakin out haha.  The members are devastated, it was a hard blow.  The day they sold the place, the owners of the soccer club with their friends and family were on the church land with flags and music blaring and drinking and partying.  Elder Martinez and I walked by just by chance and saw them all in there, and we were all like oh heck no.  So we went to talk to the president of this club and were like "Listen here bub, we know you guys bought the property and all, but it´s still ours for 2 months, so you can´t be here.  So...beat it!"  And he was like "No, the guy from your church who allowed us to buy the property gave us permission to celebrate today because you guys don´t have activities".  Turns out it was true, I called the guy from Asunción and the dummy really did give them permission.  So I told the president of this club "Ok, you have permission and that´s great, but you´re still on church property.  This is a chapel, a house of prayer and worship, and if you guys have music blaring, are dancing, bringing in cases of alcohol and all this stuff, it looks bad on us.  Our name is on the building where you´re doing all this.  So calm down.  You can have your family and food and stuff like that, but the alcohol cannot be on church property and you need to turn the music down."  He got his undies all in a bunch, but he eventually agreed and they toned it down.  It was a huge distaster.  And that´s what we´re dealing with right now :)

Last of all, we got a huge surprise phone call on Saturday.  Elder Martinez is gone :(.  They special changed him out.  One elder finished his mission today, so they chose Elder Martinez to take his place.  I´m so bummed man.  We got along so well, I was his trainer, and we were working really well.  And just when all this business with the church being sold is going on, they take out my comp.  It´s rough.  I´m pretty bummed, I loved that guy.  My companion until the normal changes come in October is a local from Itá - a city here close to Guarambaré.  His name is Elder Largosta.  He´s the brother of the branch president there.  He´s a really good guy it seems like to me.  But it´s going to be hard without a full-timer here with me to deal with all the mess that´s come.  Oh well, guess that´s the mission, right?  The assistents called us Saturday morning and said "Bueno, Elder Velluto finishes his mission on Monday, so you guys have a special change.  Elder Moore you´re going to stay there in Guarambaré.  Elder Martinez is going to Villa Policial with Elder Rhoten (funny enough, the same elder from my MTC district haha).  Be in Asunción on Monday morning at 7:00 a.m.  Questions?"  Man I wanted to cry.  I´m gonna miss that guy.  So here I am with my new temporary companion.  Reeeeally didn´t see that coming.  I thought for sure I was going to be the one to leave this October when changes came.  But looks like I´ll be here at least until mid-November.  Elder Largosta will be here with me until changes the first week of October and then I´m sure I´ll get a new companion.  We´ll be together for at least that change, and that change ends in November.  The 2nd or 3rd week.  So I have lots of time left in Guarambaré!  I´m ok with that though, I like it here.  Keeps me busy haha.  But the Lord must really trust me here to have all this happening right now all at once and keep me here.  So it´s good and it´s bad.  I´ll keep everyone updated.

So I couldn´t bring my camera cable to send everyone photos because we just barely arrived from Asunción and haven´t had time to stop by the house yet, so I couldn´t get it.  But next week I´ll have it.  Love and miss everyone!

-Elder Moore