SO, winter in Punta Arenas has almost set in.  We had about two weeks of lovely summer with sun and less wind y toda la cuestion, PERO, this week we witnessed a torrential rain pour with top speed wind.  It was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING, but thanks to a wonderful family, namely the Smiths, I have a beautiful, warm coat that even says Patagonia, which is what my sector is called.  It was meant to be. But anyway, my companion left in the torrential rainpour and the wind was so strong it pushed us along and I thought, here we are walking around in the freezing cold, nobody´s here to make us do it, and we could really just stay in the house wrapped up in blankets, so why are we out here? And I realized, my true motivation comes purely from my desire to serve my Savior.  I know He has asked me to bring the gospel to His children who don´t have it and the real reason I am outside every day is for the love that I have for Him and for His children.  So bring it on Punta Arenas.

ANYWAY this week was the baptism of Angel.  I don´t think I´ve even mentioned anything about him in my letters because I´ve been talking so much about Roxana and Miguel, but his story is incredible.  He´s been investigating the church for two years and when I got here, he had a testimony of the gospel and a desire to be baptized, but he had to get married first to Joyce, who is a less active member who has been slowing returning to church as the missionaries have been teaching them.  The thing was, many, many missionaries tried to help them to make the decision to get married and Angel wanted to, but Joyce always had a problem, she knew she wanted to, but she had suffered from depression as well as obesity and all of these difficulties pushed her farther away from this decision.  As I said, when I got here, Angel already had a testimony and a desire to be baptized.  Who really needed help was Joyce and after years of missionaries, I think it really helped her that sister missionaries arrived because she could confide in them her problems and difficulties a little bit more.  We helped her start reading the Book of Mormon and we saw a complete change in her, Hermana Letcho and I especially saw a great change in her, she had more energy and she was really committed to changing her life and starting to complete with the covenant she made at baptism.  Well they had set many dates for marriage and baptism, but this last week, they finally finally finally got married and we scheduled the baptism for Angel.  

His baptism was one of the most beautiful baptisms I have seen.  He´s very quiet and doesn´t say much, but I could see how happy he was.  During the baptism, I had decided I was going to ask all the elders in our district to sing with me and my companion and ask the five year old daughter of Angel to sing with us.  She´s not his biological daughter but he´s raised and cared for her since she was born.  Anyway, as we were teaching them, we also taught Vania (his daughter) Soy un hijo de Dios.  She would always sing it when we came.  So for the baptism, we all went up to sing and she stood on the little pedestals with all us missionaries around her and we sang Soy un hijo de Dios.  At one point as we were singing, I looked up to see Angel sitting in the front and I saw that he was crying.  I have never seen him cry before or since.  

Well, he was baptized, and then after his baptism, we had a little reception thing in the chapel afterwards to celebrate his baptism and their marriage.  One of the sisters in the ward who had accompanied us to some of the lesson had connected with the missionaries who had taught Angel over the years and who had returned home through Facebook and asked them to send videos.  So many of them sent videos and then during the little reception thing, she had put all the videos together along with a video from us and she asked for everyone´s attention and told Angel that there were some people who wanted to be here with him, but couldn´t, and they she played all the videos with Angel and Joyce standing in front watching, and at this point, Joyce started crying.  After the videos, Joyce came up to me and gave me a big hug and whispered "thank you for everything, it was all worth it."  I think that moment I will always remember.  I know everything she had gone through and I knew how long Angel had waited to be baptized, and to see them all there in this moment was incredibly beautiful.  I have no time to describe how beautiful it all was.  And with their other little son running around laughing his head off.  Ahhhhh this is what life is all about.  The next day Angel was confirmed and after church we went to their house to teach them and they´re already preparing on going to the temple to be sealed as a family.  its very expensive to go from Punta Arenas to the temple and they don´t have a lot of money but I told them if the remained worthy and worked hard to lograr esta meta, the Lord would do the rest.  That´s always how it´s been.

ALSO I HAVE NO TIME BUT ROXANA AND MIGUEL JUST CALLED TO TELL US THEY´RE GOING TO GET MARRIED THIS WEEK AHHHHHHHH!!!!

i LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

photos of Angel and Joyce and us and also the elder in our ward who baptized him.  best day of my life. i have a lot of them