Called to Serve: week 33: somos las hermanas FELICES :)

Paulo's baptism can only be described in una palabra: FELICIDAD!! So so so much HAPPINESS! He told us he feels light and joyful when he feels the spirit and I can 100% say that everyone else felt that way too! The poor guy was drowning in his large jumper and had to get dunked twice, but his smile was huge!! He bore his testimony and it was one of those missionary moments when you just know you are doing the right thing!! Because it was his birthday, we celebrated after with cake and singing, so it was a 10/10 birthday baptism!!! He was supposed to leave to go back to Peru yesterday, but told us it is being bumped to early June. Yay!! We taught him about the temple yesterday and he is so excited to be able to go inside before he leaves Utah!! His smile when we told him he would be able to go inside was absolutely precious and when bishop told us they were booked out until July he was crushed!! We're going to need a miracle with how busy temples are getting to squeeze him in for baptisms, so mega prayers on Paulo's behalf!!

5 other reasons I was a happy camper this week:

1. I bought a light-up hammock last p-day and set that up for studies and meals a few times! Feels like summer!!

2. We dog sat for Hermana Garrido all week! It started out kinda awful and she wanted us to go 5 times a day(did not have time or miles for that...), but we figured it out and were able to do studies on her back patio furniture and take him for walks everyday which was a blast!! The number of times people asked if missionaries could have pets now haha!

3. On Thursday, our stake was in charge of landscaping at the Provo City Center temple! We ripped up all the spring flowers, scrubbed the tiles, and started planting the summer flowers. It was gorgeous and so fun!! (I felt like meggy g working on temple square last summer

)

4. I got to see lots of fam/friends!! Boppa and Diyah came to drop British chocolate off on Thursday and Kate, Krista, and Logan surprised me at dinner on Friday!! It was so so soooo good to see family and friends after so long! Seriously the best surprises!

5. Last Monday evening, my bike tire got another flat and we asked some kids outside to borrow their pump so we could bike home. Their dad came out and fixed my tire speedy fast(second time someone has done that-people are soooo nice!!) and we started talking with him and his wife. The kids introduced themselves as London, Sutton, Camden, and Britain, so of course I asked about the connection to England. Brother James served in the England Birmingham mission!! We set up a member lesson for later in the week and he was able to show me some cool maps and things from his mission and tell us stories! It was awesome!! (His wife also grew up with my mom in Centerville, so she showed me some fun pics of my uncle in elementary school hehe) I love how small the world is!

And some updates on our friends:

Maribel is a solid potential we found knocking doors! We had knocked her door a few months back and her husband answered and told us we could come back another time, but it wasn't exactly legit. We went knocking in the afternoon and their house was on our list, but I was hesitant to knock since we had already done it. I had the strongest impression that we should just knock it again because it was earlier in the day, so we might catch the wife and could at least get their phone number. We did and that is exactly what happened!!! Maribel has lived in Utah for 11 years and had met missionaries in Orem, but never had time to meet with them before because of her work schedule. She only works evenings now, so she wants to learn more about our church because so many of her friends are members! We are planning to meet with her once she gets back from vacation in 2 weeks, so hopefully I am still here after transfers!!

Francisco was a new and a quick pass. We knocked on a door this week of a member who had moved into the house of a previous Spanish speaker, so we just talked with him and let him know we were the Spanish missionaries. He got our number and then called us the next day with a referral for his friend, Francisco! He told us that we didn't have much time with him, but to come introduce him to missionaries and the gospel! When we had a lesson Saturday, he told us he was moving to Minnesota on Tuesday!!! So we heard his life story and all the blessings he had seen lately, bore testimony of God's love for his children, and invited him to read the Book of Mormon and let us help him find the missionaries in Minnesota for him. He will be awesome, but at least we got to help plant the seed with his friend!

Annabelle was originally supposed to be baptized yesterday and then her mom bumped it to next Sunday to get more family there. Sadly, they are postponing it further because her mom had some serious health issues come up and is already scared of COVID, so the additional health concerns put her over the top. Please keep Annabelle and her mom in your prayers!!

Milagro(lots as you can already tell, but here's one more!): Our phones all got updated this week and as nice as some of the new updates are, it big time messed up my phone! One of the things that got taken was all 1200 of my songs from my music app!! They were still on my SD card, but we couldn't play more than one song at a time. When I first found out, I was too shocked to even know what to think. I had spent SO much time even before the mission organizing and labeling all my songs! But later, they all came back and the app was better than ever(sadly, the same thing did not happen to my comp and she had to remake all her playlists)!! Small miracle, but something that mattered to me and Heavenly Father knew!!

Love you all, Hermana Dougall:)