First Baptism!!

My family!  Hello!!

I just want to say that reading your emails today just gave me the chills.  I loved them so much!  Thank you for your wonderful examples.  I truly am so blessed.  I don't think I can say that enough.

This week.  Wow!  Where do I even begin?
Oh, I know.
I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM!!!!

February 1, 2014.  A day I will never, ever forget.  It was absolutely beautiful!  Rocio looked so beautiful and it was a feeling I will always remember!  I'll give you a quick overview of everything.

So, let's just say.  Nobody trained me what to do for baptisms.  I guess they just thought, "Oh, she's been out for 8 months, she's got to know what to do." Nope.  They were all wrong.  Ha!  My companion and I were stressing thinking, "We are not trained for this". ha!!  People asking me if I am cleaning the font, if I have the keys, and then the worst was, "Hermana McChesney, my wife can't give the talk, will you do it?"  Well.  That just added to the stress.  So, after all the stress, we were finally prepared for the baptism.

"R"came with ALL of her family.  None of them are members.  It was so great to have them there and experience the baptism.  They all loved it, and they want to talk with the missionaries.  Yeah, let's all just cry a little.  But, the baptism was great!  Everyone followed through with their assignments and I just smiled the whole time thinking in relief, "We did it!"

Her boyfriend baptized her.  I cannot wait until they get married!  They are just the cutest!  It's the best love story.  It's as if I'm watching my own chick flick and I'm the "behind the scenes makeup artist" or something like that.  ha!  I feel so privileged to be part of this change in her life.  I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ changes peoples lives.  It has changed mine, too.  It's such a beautiful thing to see!

Hey, guess what??  I'M NOT HOMELESS ANYMORE!
I have a pension. :)  Yep.  I've been trained and I could probably live on the streets and feel comfortable.  No, but really, we finally got light in our pension so we are living there!  YAY!  But...we still don't have gas so we are showering with agua fria.  No importa.  TENEMOS APARTAMENTO!  It was the best night ever!

Oh, one more thing.  We went on exchanges this week.  I stayed in Fernandez Oro with Hermana Lyman.  We had such a great time.  We found a man who is from Mendoza and said he has been looking for the missionaries for so long and he has wanted to talk with them.  YAY!  We have a lesson with him today!  Such a blessing.  The Lord is preparing people in the world.  We need to be an example so that one day they will want to listen!  It all starts with example!

Well, that's all folks.  So good to hear about your lives.  Keep preaching the gospel through example.  Thanks for the fasts and the prayers.

Love,
Hermana McChesney

Shoutouts:
--Shout out to Megan McColm for the letter.  I loved it!  Such a surprise.  What a sweetheart!
--Finally got the Christmas card mom.  It looked great!  Still waiting on all the packages.....
--Happy Birthday Arlynn Robinson this week!  YAY!
--Congrats to Austin.  Both of us had baptisms!  How exciting!! :)  So glad we got to share this date together :)