When we arrived at the Temple at 4:00 am, the guard let us in the gates. Everyone sat outside the Temple, some talking and some sleeping. There was a line of people waiting to use the guards little bathroom. At about 5:00 am, the Temple President arrived and opened the Temple for us so we could begin the Obra Vicaria (Temple Work). President Galvez (Mission President) came as well, and he renewed my temple recommend. Then we started doing baptisms and confirmations for the dead. We did this as a district nonstop from about 6:00 am til about 1:00 pm. For this 7-hour period, there was always someone in the baptismal font, doing baptisms for the dead, and there were also four different confirmations taking place at the same time. Also during that time, while some were doing baptisms and confirmations, others who were investidos, (had their endowments) were doing sessions. I did many confirmations, I was a witness of the baptisms for a very long time, and I even got a session in. With the about 50 people that came from the district, we were able to do 2,600 ordinances, and although it was very exhausting, it was 'well' worth it. WOW!
At the Temple I saw some people from Heredia. Hna. Flores (Bishop Flores wife) works there so we saw her. Hna Adilia and Gendry were also there and they actually brought Elder Perez and me cake, which I finished eating this morning for breakfast. When we went outside of the Temple we also saw Hna Jessica and Genesis. Hna Patricia was inside the Temple, and I never saw her, but outside I saw Arellys, Ceciline, and Aaron. It was good to see all of them again. On the bus ride home, you could tell everyone was exhausted. The jovenes although exhausted (because they had each been baptized like 30 times, then they changed clothes, then found out they were going to do more baptisms, so they changed back, and were each baptized another 40 times) they still managed to have enough energy to not stop talking the whole ride back. I tried to sleep, but Yassini (who I met in Cariari) and her friend Heredia, wouldn’t stop talking to me so I really couldn’t sleep. Everyone, including me, also started singing hymns on the way back. We also ate garbage. *Ü* We arrived in Rio Claro at about 8:00 pm, and ate dinner at Hna Gonzalez and Yassini's house. Then we finally arrived at the house. The Temple trip was a very special experience, and we are planning another trip for December.
The next day Sunday (10-10-10), we went to church. A friend of Yassini showed up to church, and since she was the only investigator there, we only taught her with Yassini, in the investigator class. She has been to church once before, and she said she loved it. She basically told us she wanted to be baptized, so before teaching anything at all, I asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and prepare to be baptized on the 30 of October. She agreed to be baptized on that day. My companion had left the room for two seconds to get some chalk, so he was a little surprised that when he got back, Stephanie already had a baptismal goal when we hadn’t even taught her anything yet. After that, we taught her about the Restoration and we are going to continue to teach her and prepare her for the 30th.
Elder Tobler
