The feels.

BAPTIZED!!!! 

In all honesty, this was one of those weeks where so much happened, and it was so crazy, that I don't know what to write, so I will probably leave most things out. But the most important thing is that our investigator got baptized and confirmed this weekend. He passed his interview on Wednesday after zone conference, we got organized and put everything together for the baptismal service on Saturday, and he was confirmed yesterday in sacrament meeting. It. was. the. BEST. He is the most prepared person I've ever met in my life! He was so happy! WE are so happy!

BAPTISM! Rafael, baptized by Obispo (bishop) David Nielsen. 

We have the best bishop. 

He speaks 4 languages and has a heavy lisp in all 4, and he's super driven and dedicated to the Lord's work. 

The other big, but less-important, news of the week is we received our transfer calls. We truly thought nothing would change in our ward except that we would get new elders. Well, the elders in our ward are flushing out, and their area is closing. The sisters will be taking over the whole South Shore, and Hermana Rivas will be in a trio with Hermana Dorado and Hermana Meldrum - both of which are sisters that I've been in the same district with before. Which means, you guessed it, I'm getting transferred! 7 weeks in Victoria just wasn't long enough, but I'm glad I'm at least leaving this ward one convert stronger. I'm going to back to English in Kirtland, in the Mount Royal zone in Montreal, where I will be a sister training leader. My new companion is from Belgium, and she goes home in like 4 weeks, so I'm not sure what's going to happen to me for the last part of the transfer, but we'll see! Needless to say, we're still wrapping our minds around it!!!

More missionary force en el barrio de Victoria!!

Missionaries with the ward mission leader.

Yesterday's sacrament meeting was probably the most stressful event of my life to date. I was asked to give a talk a week and a half ago, but my topic was, "What were we doing one month ago to achieve our ward goals by the end of 2016?" and no one could adequately explain it to me until like 3 days before, and then we were rushing to plan a baptism, so I didn't have a lot of preparation time. But on top of that, I was told I was going last, so I tailored my talk to go after the themes of the other talks, but then I went first. Also, the elders have an investigator who's really sick but they told her if she came to church yesterday they would baptize her immediately after the meetings, so we waited in suspense for her to come but she didn't. (Devastating.) Also, one of our elders is going home this week, so we planned to play "God be with you till we meet again" to make him cry, but it totally backfired because THREE of us were actually leaving, and as I played the organ and listened to the congregation and tried not to look at the elders, all I could think was how it was the saddest thing I think I've ever heard. Everyone cried at some point at church yesterday. 

Sorry for the novel! Talk to you next week!

Hermana Shower

Sister Patrick (mission president's wife) told me how to make her famous brownie bombs while we were at zone conference this week. So naturally I had to try it! And bring it to the baptism! It's cookie dough wrapped in brownie, covered in chocolate. SO good! Rafael, who was baptized, Is vegetarian and doesn't eat sugar, but when I told him I made them he was like, "Oh, then I HAVE to try!" and loved it. Mwahaha. His face in the congregation when they announced I was leaving yesterday was heartbreaking... :(

 And frescolita. Venezuelan drink. I have the best Venezuelan companion.