This week was a challenging week to say the least. Definitely one of the most challenging one I've had out here in the mission field. Here is why: Missionaries have been working with this investigator, Maggie, since April and all the way back in August she personally set her own baptismal date for this past Saturday the 21st. Since then missionaries here have been working hard with her to help her overcome her mom's "fandui" or protest about joining the church. So all the way up to last Monday she had been working hard to overcome it and then we got the permission from her mom to get baptized so we rushed to get her a baptismal interview for 2 days later so she could make her baptismal goal of this past Saturday.
She passed her baptismal interview with flying colors and then we got permission for Elder Wayment to come back to baptize her since he had been working with her since May. So we're all excited and then we get a call from a ward member (one of her friends) on Friday night at about 9:30pm saying that she might not be getting baptized because she was telling people at work that she was getting baptized the next day and a christian from a different denomination absolutely railed on our church twisting our doctrine to sound like we're a cult and stuff like that.
Later a couple of members went and talked with her till about midnight and she said she pray about it and make a decision the next morning (that part we didn't know since we had to go to bed). So we get a call from the member at 11 the next morning that she decided to get baptized so we went forward with it and get everything ready. And then 90 minutes before the baptism we get a call from the member and the investigator. She cancelled the baptism. Apparently after she made the decision she went to go talk with her boyfriend (another one of our investigators) and in the words of Elder Anderson "HE FLIPPING PERSUADED HER NOT TO....." (we later found out the boyfriend has absolutely no interest in the Church or God in general and only kinda started taking the lessons to make her happy).
We had to hurry and call everyone and tell them that the baptism was off. She luckily had already called Elder Wayment to tell him to hop off the train because she cancelled the baptism. My companion and I were absolutely heart broken because she is so well prepared for baptism. I was downcast to say the least, but then, I assume with permission, Elder Facer, my son, reached me to tell me that Chen Jia Wen, who I had taught from the beginning was baptized just last week. I missed it by a week and didn't even know it was happening for sure till after the matter but I was mostly just happy that it happened. It made me happy and was sort of this weeks saving grace.
Another fun thing was last night. While we were contacting people at the train station this crazy guy came up to us and tried to give us these bike accessories for free. We looked inside them and they both had wallets in them. And then he tried to sell us a bike for $100NT (about $3USD) that was the same brand and model as my companions bike (just 2 frame sizes smaller) which is very very expensive. We didn't buy it from him but we got his contact info so we'll see if he shows up to English Class this week.
Love,
Elder Henry David Christensen
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