Big Week! Baptisms, Mayan Sacrifice and Cow Tongue!! 2/13/2012

So I'll start with today and why I'm writing so late.  We hiked a mountain, it's called Siete Orejas, y'all can look it up if you want.  It was a recommendation from Walter and it was excellent.  There were a lot of times where there was no path so we had to bushwhack and trail blaze and a few other fun words.  And when we got to the top we found some guys doing Mayan sacrifices.  They were really chill, they were just glad we weren't government workers and they let us take pictures ha ha so here's some pictures of some of the views that we got today as well as the sacrifice and Elder R and I in a cave that we found :)  Good Pday ha ha

 I'm really glad that y'all like the letters so much. They are a lot of work but the fact that you so much enjoy them makes it worth it.  Just so you know, the cow tongue and the cow tail were both DELICIOUS!!!! SO good!  Shirley is a GREAT cook though so that could have had something to do with it ha ha. (These are just pictures of the cow tongue, raw and cooked.  Hope you're a little grossed out ;)  ha ha.)

No news worth mentioning this week but we're going to be looking hard next week.  Health is good, no worries there ha ha.   

So as you can imagine, this week was all Walter, well more Family Castillo.  Preparing, baptismal interviews, preparing, making agendas (which got sent to dad so y'all can see how they turned out
ha ha. Andrew accidentally emailed the baptism agenda to his dad! It kinda freaked us out to get a mid-week email ;-))  And in the middle of all this we had time for ANOTHER multi zone conference and the trainers meeting both of which were excellent!  Also on Friday we had an excellent baptism, the sisters baptized a family of five and it was really well done, got the ward even more excited for the Castillo family ha ha.  And then on top of all of it, Saturday.  I cannot contain what happened there in an email.  It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my entire life.  We had Shirley's sister speak as well as her husband and some of the people that have been working with him for such a long time ha ha.  It was excellent and invited the spirit.  Also, the agendas did more than you'd think they would.  But having every ones testimonies on paper was excellent.  We, Elder R, the zonies and I, did a special musical number which I think went well and then Shirley's brother-in-law spoke, he's the Stake President of Momos.  He also did an excellent job!  Then we passed to the font and that's where it got really out of control.  Everyone was already really emotional and a little nervous but we did alright.  I baptized Bryan first, he wasn't too nervous but Emily was.  This entire time the spirit was just.... indescribable.  Everyone was either on the verge of tears or crying.  Emily was baptized next and it was all just such a special experience.  When I came out of the font emotions were very high and Walter was crying as well and he just came up and gave me a huge hug.  Elder R then baptized Walter and everyone was completely silent, they both started crying during the prayer and just hugged big after the ordinance.  After all of the changing time though was one of my favorite moments.  As I said Emily was a bit nervous and I was trying to help her the whole time and when we were all sitting down she grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear "estuvimos bien"(we were good) and she was just beaming.  It was incredible.  On top of all of it we got to participate in the confirmations.  Elder R confirmed Walter, Bishop confirmed Emily and I confirmed Bryan.  It was a very singular experience, something I can't ever forget.  One of the best weekends ever! 

Kid tomorrow as well, I'll tell you all about him next week LOVE YOU ALL!!! Andrew will be training a new missionary this change.  
-Elder Westenskow