We had an exciting week! We had a baptism, but I'll save that part for the end. First of all, this week was La Semana Santa, or Holy Week, which is very big in the Catholic religion. From a week ago last Sunday, to Easter Sunday, there was at least one procession going on each day in the middle of the city. When we had time, we spent time near the center to try and start casual conversations about what was going on, which was good practice for talking to people normally, to try and become their friend before trying to share the gospel. Little by little, we're getting better at it. The processions were interesting to see. We ended up seeing 2 of them. It usually has some band playing music, and people dressed up in Catholic church clothing, carrying statues of Jesus from when was crucified to when he was resurrected. It was eerie, to say the least. A lot of the people wear masks that make them look like KKK members, and some of the statues of Jesus are kind of graphic. I'll send some pictures that we got.
For Easter Sunday, we had a normal Sunday. There was no trace of the Easter Bunny all day, sadly. Church was pretty good. Our buddy David, who got baptized on Saturday, got confirmed in sacrament meeting that day by my companion Elder Santiago, and after church he went with us to eat at a member's house. This lady, Hermana Minda, invites us over every Sunday and feeds us a ton of food. We always walk away full of food from the Dominican Republic, which means a lot of rice, beans, and chicken. Then that night we ate at the new branch president's house. When we got there, he and his wife were still cooking, so we played with their kids for a bit and then they fed us pupusa, a famous food from El Salvador (shout out to my buddy Jacob Mower who will be there in a few months), then talked to us about how we can help the branch out.
Now about the baptism! Everything went well for the preparations, even though a couple people didn't come last minute. On Saturday we took 2 cars and drove to Valladolid, about 1 hr 15 min away, and used their church building. It was a great experience. David Ricardo Garcia Moya has been meeting with missionaries for almost a year, and his mom was baptized last October in Ecuador. His dad was baptized 34 years ago, but he isn't active anymore and even though he's slowly returning, he wasn't able to come to the baptism. Both of the parents live here, with David and one of his sisters. They have 4 other kids who live in Ecuador, and one of them is preparing for a mission but the other 3 aren't members. So of his family, David and his mom and his aunt who is visiting for a couple weeks from Bilbao were able to go. His mom gave the opening prayer and as she was saying it, she teared up as she expressed her gratitude for her son's baptism and for all the missionaries' efforts to help him. The spirit was super strong after that, and it was a good afternoon. I got to baptize him, which was a great experience. Elder Santiago and I were really grateful because our prayers were answered that everything would work out. There weren't any problems in getting there or back, and the very next day David's mom and one of the drivers got sick and couldn't come to church. It was definitely one of the many tender mercies that we saw, that they didn't get sick until afterwards.
I hope you all have a great week, and happy easter!
-Elder Dobbs
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