Sandra's Baptism!!!!

In an earlier blog I wrote about finally being a real missionary. Sandra, our neighbor, who I met taking out the garbage, was listening to the missionary discussion. Just as we finished the second discussion, some of the Sisters I was working with were transferred. That left me with two Portuguese Sisters and an American. This would prove to be very helpful in the next discussion.
We were teaching the Plan of Salvation. I was understanding a little of it for I have read it in Portuguese but I was struggling to understand what Sandra was saying in reply. I know at one point she said she got chills when we read some of the scriptures we shared. I know she said she felt it was true but I was wondering why the lesson seemed to be stalled. So I leaned over to the American missionary and asked her for a quick recap of what was said. She told me that Sandra felt she wasn’t perfect and that she was scared that if she got baptized she wouldn’t be able to stay with it. Satan always knows when to come knock is how she put it and she actually knocked on the table. While the other missionaries were addressing her insecurities and concerns, I suddenly felt like I needed to say something. But what? With so little language skills I wasn’t sure what had been said already. And I knew I couldn’t say all I was feeling in Portuguese. Well I finally thought I had to say whatever came to mind and I needed to do it then. So I asked the American Sister to translate. I hate bearing testimony that way because you have to stop in mid sentence and wait for the translation. But I muddled through. I told Sandra baptism wasn’t a destination but a gate to a path. I told her if she would show the Lord she was willing to obey Him and do this thing He had commanded – be baptized – then He would give her two things to help her on the path. I talked to her about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and then about grace. I testified that there was real power in both of those things and that they would help her to stay strong. I told her I had used these things many times in my life to help me stay on the path. When I stopped she looked right at me and in English said, “I will be baptized."
I wasn’t sure by that if I had misunderstood the previous part of the discussion and that she had already said she would be baptized but just wanted me to know. But after the discussion, the missionaries told me they had tried all they could think of to get her past her worries and insecurities.They said that they could tell my words were what finally reached her and that is when she committed. Once she had, the rest of the lesson was amazing. The Spirit was so strong as the missionaries committed her to the next discussion and coming to church for General Conference and a baptism in 3 weeks. At the end she gave the prayer – a long one and she cried through most of it.
When we came over to teach her the next lesson the Sisters thought we would teach the Word of Wisdom or what most people call our health code. Since Sandra had committed to baptism they wanted to move forward and make sure she would be ready in three weeks. I wasn't especially convinced of their plan. We had only taught her half of the Plan of Salvation. I remember when I was a young woman the missionaries teaching me about the resurrection, the judgment day and about the three degrees of glory. But the Sisters determined that we would come back to that. So we came to the door and Sandra opens it looking very different than the last time we saw her. She was dressed like a missionary! She told us the day before she threw all her "little clothes" away and decided she should dress more like us. We had never said anything to her about modesty – it is an island and everyone dresses a bit immodestly. So that was the first shock.
Then after the hymn and prayer, the Sisters asked if Sandra had any questions before we started the lesson. She pulled out her notebook, where she records everything, and her Book of Mormon, which now has little sticky notes coming out of the pages. Then in a matter of fact tone she asked, "Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. But he was dead and we aren't resurrected until Jesus comes again. So how is this possible?" Shock number two and it was a major one!!! In Cape Verde the faith of the people is very simple. They are spiritually sensitive and accept the truth readily but they don't dig deeply into the scriptures on their own. (Some struggle to read. Because creole is not a written language their scriptures are in Portuguese and if they have not gone to enough school where they are taught Portuguese you can imagine how difficult it is.)
The question showed how much she had been reading and studying. Anyway in order to answer it fully, we ended up teaching the rest of the plan of salvation. Sandra was so receptive.
That weekend she was able to attend two sessions of General Conference. In President Monson's talk she picked up on the phrase, wickedness never was happiness. She explained that she has always felt that to be happy you had to keep the commandments. Then she said we were the first church she had gone to that actually taught and expected its members to keep the commandments.
The next couple of discussions went well. We invited some of the sisters in the ward to join us in those discussion so Sandra could make some friends. And being such a cheerful and sweet person she made friends fast. Last Monday night we had a group of the sisters over for a Family Home Evening. We went around the room sharing our conversion stories and talking of how much the Gospel has changed our lives. Here is a picture of all of our friends at the Family Home Evening.

Then came Saturday - the day of the baptism. This is Sandra arriving with her mom, niece and her little girl, Elle.

This was right before the meeting began. I was so happy I fought tears through the whole meeting.

 After the baptism she is encircled by her new friends in the ward.

 And this is her niece, Sister, nephew, Mom and two friends.

After the baptism she wanted to have a celebration so a bunch of sisters gathered at her home for a feast of fish, rice and beans she had made for us.

The funniest part to me was just after the baptism when I was giving her and the two Sister missionaries a ride back to her house from the church. About half way there she says to the Sisters, "I am so happy I want to scream but I don't want to scare Sister Mathews while she is driving." The Sisters told me what she had said so we decided on the count of three we would all scream. Yippee! Later at the end of the lunch we did it with all the sisters there. I think we rocked the neighborhood. This whole experience has been an answer to my prayers and Sandra's. Isn't it amazing how the Lord can turn such a chance encounter - while taking out the garbage - into such an amazing experience and friendship.