The Time Satan Sent a Blizzard the Morning of My First Baptism & Nearly Ruined Everything :)

The title sums everything up. I had the most stressful week of my life BUT HEY! Missionary work is still AMAZING, now let's talk about the blessings of adversity because somehow it ties into this! This week wasn't actually the greatest. It was kind of REALLY hard and stressful for me if I'm being 100% honest. I had to work a lot on personal stuff that was really hard for me. I got discouraged so many time that made me realized I was too hard on myself and it had stopped me from progressing. Discouragement is a tool Satan uses against us to stop us from progressing. BE CAREFUL AND BE AWARE OF IT! As I became humble enough to accept my weaknesses and relied on the Lord to help me change I was blessed as was my companion and my investigators. But like one of my favorite quotes says, "A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor." It seems it's always the most challenging times in my life where I learn and grow the very most. It has really helped me understand why adversity is necessary in our lives. It's evidence of God's love for us, that he loves us enough to make us who we need to become even when the learning process can be challenging. I invite you all to watch a video called "The Will of God". It is short and simple yet powerful and helps us understand how to seek and feel God's love through trials:

I just want to say I love my fellow Virginians... they're my people, my friends, my hermanos/hermanas, mi familia... but I can't help but laugh at how terrified they are of snow. When an inch of snow falls they shut down their businesses, cancel school and hide in their homes. They go into this emergency hibernation mode, hahahaha! Although I find it amusing, it also was the reason the baptism ALMOST got cancelled this Saturday. But THANK GOODNESS the show went on! 

The baptism was wonderful! I will use code names to not confuse you all, the recent convert and his wife love Mickey & Minnie Mouse so that will be their code names for today. If you go back to my first transfer in Old Town you will find a story of me with a sweet woman (Minnie) I once met at an elderly mission couple's home one Sunday for dinner. She opened up to me about her struggles with her husband, we cried and talked for hours. I promised her things would get better as she remained faithful and the Lord had a plan for her and her baby. She said she would pray so that I would get transferred to Little River. Guys, it was HER HUSBAND that got baptized this Saturday! It has been a crazy, incredible journey! I remember when I first got here my companions were terrified of Mickey and he never wanted to talk to us... NOW?! Now he has given up all his addictions, is an INCREDIBLE father and husband, is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is just kicking Satan's butt! We're also his best friends now, he finally likes us! Minnie is SO happy! I don't know what I did to deserve the opportunity to meet them and be an instrument in the Lord's hands to watch this incredible conversion. I LOVE my mission, I LOVE the people I teach, I LOVE the gospel and I absolutely know it is true! If you would have told me the night I met Minnie that I was going to teach and later baptize her husband I would have thought it was a joke! But here we are, the Lord is powerful, He is All-Knowing and I don't care who you are or what you're struggling with, if you have the desire to change and follow God you can and you will. Mickey asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost at his baptism, I got to sing a special musical number, "Caundo Me Bautice" and nearly the whole ward was there, we almost didn't fit in the room! Minnie and I totally hugged and bawled during his baptism, Mickey gave a beautiful testimony that ended in him bearing his testimony of his Hermanas Misioneras and that made my life complete. Here are two very special pictures to me, the day I met Minnie in my first area and the day we attended her husband's baptism. What a special family and story that I will cherish forever.

I'm liking this code name thing so it's going to continue. Remember the 11 year old who is reactivating her whole family? Her codename will be Winter! So basically she's the little sister I have always wanted and is getting baptized this Saturday! She is still beautiful, strong and an amazing example to everyone! She is done with all the lessons and I was asked to sub for her class this Sunday at church which was so fun! If you know me, you know I love children and teaching them about the gospel. Winter also got to sing at our ward Christmas concert last night that I also performed in with the missionaries and sung "Mando a Su Hijo". Here is a cute picture of Hermana Gonzalez, Winter and I after the Christmas concert. I'm excited to share about her baptism next week! 

DJ is still breaking my heart and making me really dislike free agency. Keep praying.

Snow is a missionary's worst enemy because when it snows we aren't allowed to drive our cars. What does this mean for a missionary in the DC South mission? Well, we cover multiple cities and our investigators live quite a ways from each other. We had amazing members and investigators take us to and from our appointments and dinner Saturday, bless their hearts. I wanted to take a picture of the snow for you all but literally after Saturday it stopped snowing and by Sunday morning it was all melted! So it decided to snow for the baptism and our super busy Saturday evening... Hermana Gonzalez and I are sure it was Satan trying to ruin the baptism. There's no more snow but praying we don't have more snow days. I'm including a winter missionary selfie because I'm so excited to wear warm winter clothes!

Anyways, adversity is a learning opportunity, the gospel changes lives, snow is my worst enemy, I love being a missionary and I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Con amor,
Hermana Tapia