Hermana Tess Crawford: Renzo's Baptism!!! (and really bad Chinese food!)

It sounds like you're summer's gotten of to a good start. The house seriously looks AMAZING, I can't believe it's the same house I used to live in.... it looks so different with the wood/tile and the rug! I can't wait to see it all finished. I'm glad the girls are excited for their trips and that Rustin's working hard and his surgery went well. Haha I'm sorry you hurt your foot, but I guess it was pretty convenient!.. Things must be pretty crazy over there at the Crawford house. I hope Peter's doing better too- he's seriously a magnet for crazy things like that. He better use his next 6 lives wisely. Tell him I said happy birthday!!

So this week was........... insane. It started off bad when we went to that crappy Chinese place I sent the picture of. I was really nauseaous afterwards and we had to stay in the pench. Then on Tuesday morning I was feeling ok, and we had zone meeting so we went to that and our part of it went well. Then we ate lunch with members and afterwards I was starting to feel gross again so we went back and I tried to sleep it off. The next day I was doing better, and so we went to our lunch appointment but the lady had forgotten, and so we went to go buy something and on the way we saw two kittens in a cage that said "se regalan" (which means they're free basically) and they were super dirty and starving and it was freezing, so we called a few people to see if they wanted a kitten, but when no one did we decided to save them and take them to the pench until we found them a home. We walked into the grocery store with them and I thought they'd kick us out but no one was even phased at all. Haha. We then bathed and fed them milk and played with them as I was still trying to recover.

As usual the Ibañez's were worried about us and had been giving us medicine and stuff the whole week. When the mom (Norma) sent Renzo to give me some drops that were called "novomit", we were talking to him something crazy happened. He informed us that a friend he had invited to english class on saturday wasn't going to be able to come. He then told us that he wasn't going to make it either (which was weird because he never misses a class) and then he said we weren't going to make it either. When we asked him why we wouldn't be able to go, he said "because I'm going to get baptized on Saturday"... We didn't believe him at first because he had said before that he wouldn't do it unless his whole family did, and also that he still had doubts and hadn't gotten an answer from God yet. But he wasn't kidding, obviously! He's a private person so we're not positive how or when he got his answer, but he did and he got confirmed in church this sunday! Thanks for the prayers- they paid off!

So yeah I was still sick on thursday (throwing up & everything). I ate salty noodles for lunch and slept, and then we had to travel 3 hours on a bus to Malargue at 6 pm. By six I was feeling better so it wasn't terrible, but I definitely was feeling carsick. Malargue was.. freezing. The hnas there are Hna Tanner from St. George, UT (her grandparents own this new drink place called Swig at BYU Provo that's supposedly awesome) and Hna Bentley from Lindon UT who is being trained still. I was with Bentley and we got to visit a few people who were kind of strange and frustrating, but it was still fun. She doesn't really speak Spanish yet and so it was my first time being with someone who couldn't help me much with the lessons. My poor latina comps must have been stressed to have me as their comp when I first got here haha. It was fun but we didn't have a ton of time because we had to travel back to our area at 7.

On saturday we had to get everything ready for the baptism. He wanted us to sing all the hymns in English and so we had to print of the lyrics and stuff. Then we went to the church to pick up white pants and a tie when we looked at the font and realized that there was old, nasty, freezing water still in it and it was broken (undrainable)... So we freaked out and had to change the location to the Hnas chapel in Ballofet, a somewhat nearby area. We also surprised them by singing their family song- I'll Fly Away. The one from the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou. It was crazy and we basically spent the whole day trying to clean and get everything ready. Luckily it went well and the whole family made it, even though they almost didn't because Renzo didn't want them to go but he changed his mind 5 minutes before the baptism. He didn't let the come to his confirmation on Sunday though and we were about ready to kill him when we found out! The members got mad that we didn't invite them, but he only wanted the missionaries there because like I said he's a private person. I understand though, I would've probably done the same exact thing haha. The baptism was awesome though and even his sister Belen cried who's kind of rebellious and not making the greatest choices right now. Hopefully the rest of the family makes the same decision to get baptized soon!

Yesterday President Avila and his wife came and said goodbye with one last zone conference thing. Their messages were the best I've ever heard in my life, I'm glad I have one more leadership meeting in Mendoza with them before they go. There was lots of crying going on though because for others it was goodbye forever. So crazy.

This week should be insane again. There will be even more crying than there already has been (my comp, not me), lots of goodbyes, and getting trunky. Wish me luck, it'll probably be hard, but we got another surprise- Hna Medrano (the one who was my leader when I was here before and is my hero) is coming to visit this Saturday!!! She'll be with us Saturday and Sunday! She and my comp were comps and they're bff's so that's why she's coming. It's going to be great to see her! I still don't know who my killer (last comp) will be, I'll let you know on Monday after I get my LAST transfer call on Sunday! Ahhh. Stressful. I'm doing good though, I'm not sick anymore so don't worry! I'm tired though..

I hope you all have an awesome week! Love you! Enjoy the pictures.

<3,

Hna Crawford