Best Birthday Present Ever 🌊

From: Seth Gifford
Date: Mon, Aug 16, 2021, 5:07 PM
Subject: Best Birthday Present Ever

Hey howdy hey….It’s been a hot second….

I hope y’all are ready for this. 👀

First things first, we’ve been grinding SO hard here in Calkiní. These past few weeks have been inSANE, but it was all worth it because our friend Jorge was baptized on Sunday!!!! Hence, the best birthday present ever 🙏

A few things of little importance:

-We had divisions with the other elders in our district

-I got absolutely planchado (roasted) by the Elder I was with. Not cool. But it’s okay.

-Elder Barrientos and I traveled to Hecelchakán to go house shopping for the elders that will live there starting this transfer. We found an epic room for them, but we sad we won’t be the ones to live there because it’s literally in the perfect spot 🙁

-It’s been freaking hot here over the past few weeks and super humid, but luckily we were able to get an AC unit in our house for the night time

-I got a package from my fam ❤ (Don’t worry Mom, it was important to me 😊)

Things of more importance:

The past few weeks, we’ve been teaching a ton of people, it’s honestly hard to keep track of all of them sometimes. We literally have 50+ people we’re teaching with about 10+ that are progressing. We’ve never been so busy! We’ve invited a lot of people to be baptized and in these past few weeks we’ve seen a TON of small miracles. There’s literally NO way that all that has happened wasn’t orchestrated by God. I will share just a couple of those little miracles. 

One, we had 2 baptisms set for this weekend and we needed to clean the baptismal font. Well, we realized quickly that it would not drain. We called around and it took a few days to find out who knew what to do. Time was ticking towards our baptisms and the font was not working. Well, we went outside and did what this guy told us to do over the phone and it didn’t work. The only option was to report it to Mexico City which would take a week or so to process and have someone come to fix it. Well, we didn’t have time and we had 2 baptisms. We got down on our knees, and prayed with all the faith we could muster that the font would work so we could have the baptisms. Well faith without works is dead, so we went and tinkered with the bomba (I have no idea what the word is in English, but it’s like an underwater water pump thing), and after a while when we checked the font again, IT DRAINED!!! It was truly a miracle and a testimony to us that God wanted these baptisms to happen.

Two, on Saturday, we traveled to a city called Halachó to pick up some baptismal clothes from some other elders, and on the way back, when we were crossing the border between the state of Yucatan to Campeche, our car was stopped by the police and they started asking us questions. I was calm because I knew they were just checking to make sure things were all good, but I saw one of the officers eyeing me and my companion and in my mind I thought that I’d better pull out my green card because I was fully expecting him to ask for it. The officer came to our window and asked where we were going and where we were from. We told him “Calkiní” and he looked at his phone and then showed us a picture of Elder Barrientos and I, and said, “Is this you?” I was freaked out where on earth this police officer got our picture and I had no idea if they were looking for us or something. I started to question if we had done something wrong and then to our great surprise the police officer was like: “I’m Freddy!” Freddy is a guy we are currently teaching!! We were so surprised and relieved. He told us he was working right now but that we could talk later. It was epic.

I learned a hard lesson this week. When we were walking to a member meal on Sunday, we saw a couple whose motorcycle had broken down and they were trying to start it again. They had passed us earlier and it broke down and as we walked past them, we greeted them and I had the prompting to ask if they needed help, but. I. didn’t. do. it……….In my mind I justified not doing so. We were in a rush, we had a baptism in 3 hours and we were already running late….with every step I felt as though it was too late. I looked back and their motorcycle started up again and they drove away. I realized what had just happened. God had literally put someone in our path. Their motorcycle only stopped working when we passed to give us the opportunity to talk to them, but as soon as I didn’t follow the prompting and we were walking away, it started up again. I was SO MAD and myself. It hurt me so much to think that maybe they were prepared to receive the gospel and because of my unwillingness to follow a prompting, they might not get the chance again for a while. I felt horrible, but I made a resolve to follow the next prompting I received to open my mouth. Lesson learned.

Things of the MOST importance:

The road to Jorge’s baptism was a bumpy one. He was met with a huge wall of opposition. After his baptismal interview, he was SO excited. He called us and upon asking how it was he said: “ME FUE GRANDIOSO!” which basically means “It went super well!”. We were super pumped for him, but at 10 at night, he called us again and as soon as we answered we knew something was wrong. He was sobbing and could hardly get a word out. We found out that his parents were not being supportive at all and were trying to dissuade him from being baptized etc. They wouldn’t give him his Book of Mormon that we left them. He was absolutely distraught and was literally weeping. It broke my heart. We shared some scriptures with him, and did all we could to encourage him. We said a lot of prayers with him. That night, I started fasting because he needed extra help from heaven to be able to keep moving forward, and if I could do anything to help, I would. I could not help but just cry for Jorge. There was a precious soul in need of help, and it hurt mine to think of his pain. Jorge has been through so much. Well, we saw some pretty incredible miracles. The hearts of his parents were softened enough to give him his Book of Mormon, and the next day he texted us that he was okay! It was a huge miracle!

Well, I don’t have time to write about all of the miracles we saw, but there were LOTS. His baptism went super well, and there were a lot of people supporting him. It was a day full of joy and sadness. Joy, because Jorge, a precious soul, entered the gate that leads to eternal life. Sadness, because starting today, we no longer have Hecelchakán as part of our area and will have to say goodbye to all of the amazing members. Hecelchakán will always have a piece of my heart. We will also have to pass on Jorge to the new missionaries 😢  It was a day full of emotion. But I’m so thankful that I was able to be a part of Jorge’s journey and I will remember it for the rest of my life.

We received our transfer news and Elder Barrientos and I will remain here in Calkiní for another transfer! Our mission is also receiving 17 new missionaries tomorrow, all gringos. Epic.

Well, I’m out of time, but I love all of you and hope you’re all doing great! Sorry for such a long email, but I hope y’all have a super duper week!

Love,

-Elder Gifford

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