All the baptism services I have been to in the states are very basic: come, watch the baptism, go home. You sped an hour tops. Not so here. It is commonly understood around here that Mexicans have parties as often as they can. Any excuse is a good one for everyone to gather, eat potluck Mexican food, chat, and listen to music. Today was no exception.
We drove about 20 minutes to a river flowing out of the jungle and towards the ocean. It was very beautiful. I was surprised how much the scenery reminded me of the Feather and Umpqua rivers: forested mountains nearby and shallow rocky river bed in the valley. The men unloaded tables, chairs, and a basic sound system. We had perhaps ten baptisms in the cool water. The water was probably a little warmer than the rivers in Northern California at their warmest. Here, that is freezing. The ocean and swimming pools are very warm, so only the kids and pastors were brave enough to get wet at first.
Once the baptisms were over, the women produced huge pots of beans, rice, tostadas, sandwiches and desserts. We ate the wonderful food, trying to forget about the swarms of carpenter ants we had disturbed on the beach. John started swimming and I went wading with some of the older girls. At one point, John picked a couple flowers upstream and brought them over to me. That attracted the attention of the whole group and they started wooping and chanting at us in Spanish. I didn't understand at first, but with the help of a Canadian friend, I realized what they wanted. I kissed John to the delight of the crowd.
It was such a fun, relaxed atmosphere. Some of the men started hunting for fresh water shrimp, and the young adults floated down the rapids. I hadn't quite gotten up the courage to brave the cold water AND rapids, when Pastora Maya asked me if I would float down with her. I agreed, so John, me, Pastora Maya, and her teenage son floated down in that order. It was so much fun, I did it again :) All in all, it was a wonderful day. I can't wait for the next baptism service.
Other than the trip to the river, our life was very typical this week. We went to the mission a couple times, worked on things at the church, attended a couple prayer and regular church services, made power points for the services, and studied Spanish. I called the language school, and John and I are starting to research what we need in terms of funding and housing to move to Guadalajara to attend the school.
John and I are starting to feel some spiritual opposition now that we have committed to staying here for a while. Nothing huge, just small inconveniences that make life more complicated. For example, John Mark is still sick with the upper respiratory infection he got when we were home. He did a round of antibiotics but wasn't getting better, so he went to the doctor and got another set of stronger antibiotics and some other drugs. Those new drugs gave him some rough side effects, and he had to stop taking one of them. We also lost our camera. I thought it was around the house somewhere, but we have looked through everything (twice) and cannot find it. We don't know where else it could be. We are praying that it just appears somewhere. Please pray with us about these things and that the details for language school work themselves out. Thank you so much for your prayers. We value them greatly because they make a difference in our lives.
We are doing really well, and are very happy to be here.
Blessings & love,
Moorea
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