Marino was baptized on Saturday and it was SOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! I sent pictures...I hope you got them. There was such a sweet spirit there and it was personal and so wonderful! His wife Ana, and his daughter, Emili came with her son Edwin. We have also met with Ana twice now. She is more shy, but I think little by little, she will have a desire to be baptized too. Marino came all dressed up in his suit. I could tell he was nervous, but he was excited too. He is such a sweet, humble old man. AND right before it started, President and Sister Jackson came! WHAT!? No pressure haha! But, it was really great. Sister Jackson had actually sat in on a lesson with us a week or two prior to that, and so it meant alot to Marino that they would come. Before hand, Marino had asked me to play the violin because he knew that I played, so Hermana Nydegger accompanied me and we played the Spirit of God. Jesus Galvez, one of the Spaniard members here who totally reminds me of Grandpa Kartchner, spoke on Baptism and then another member named Maii from the Dominican Republic also gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Afterwards, the baptism went really well, and everything ran smoothly! And then Marino asked me to share my testimony also. I know that Heavenly Father was helping me with my Spanish. Half the time I was up there, I wasn´t really sure if the words that were coming out were correct, but afterwards President Jackson was like, ¨Holy Cow your Spanish was SOO good!¨¨ It was encouraging to hear my mission President of all people say that! I know it was Heavenly Father helping me!
After I bore my testimony, Marino shared his. He was very humble and expressed such heart felt gratitude for the missionaries who make such sacrifices, who leave away from their families to share the Gospel throughout the world. As he began to talk about the Savior, he started to cry. My heart was touched to hear his beautiful and simple testimony of the Savior and what he knows the Savior has done for him. It has been such a privilege to be apart of this process of helping Marino, introducing him to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a beautiful day for him!!
Something else that has been so cool for me to learn here is the reality of member missionary work! Holy cow...members really are the missionaries! As missionaries, we are here to help teach, but really the Spirit is the true teacher! Then when we invite people to church, they come and they really do feel the Spirit and the members help them feel that Spirit. I have seen that so much with Marino especially. There have been so many times where Marino has come to church, and he´s learned SO much from other members, who have taught Sunday School. He loves the Gospel, and he´s always the first one to raise his hand to answer questions during church. It has been one of the coolest things for me to see his knowledge grow and expand as he´s come to church every week and now that he is baptized! I know that Heavenly Father is preparing each of us to understand the things we need to understand, to understand the Gospel, to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to understand our great need for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth.
Ok...real quick....I forgot to tell you. Last week on P-day I went to the ¨GoFit¨ Gym here...there was an add advertising that you could have one free day pass to go for the first time only...OH my gosh it was hilarious!!!!!! We went to this spinning-biking class that lasted for about an hour. We get in there, and the instructor turns on these disco-glow in the dark lights...and then turns on this super loud techo music that we had to bike to the beat of. OH my gosh I was SO sore and it was hilarious! My favorite part was our instructor, yelling at the top of her lungs...ARRIBA and VAMOS!! I´ve never been to a biking class, let alone in Spain. I felt so cool!
Anyway...other news! I get to stay in Torrejón for another transfer with my trainer! I´m really excited and happy for that. I love Torrejón and I love the ward here! There is lots of work here and it has been a really great starting place for me as a missionary :)
¡Que tenga una buena semana! I love you!
Hermana Ashlee Carroll
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