This is my first contact in Arequipa. His name is Miguel. He is 17 years old and his mother Elizabeth has been an inactive member of the church for over 20 years. The night before this day Miguel wasn't going to get Baptized, but for some reason he decided to. We scheduled his baptism at 2:00pm, but we later found out his mom wouldn't be able to attend. So we decided to have his service at 8:00pm, but then he remembered he had work at 7:00pm. We called his mom who was at work, and she said she could be there at 6:30pm. So we started the baptism service at 6:00pm and planned on putting him in the water at exactly 6:30pm. Forces were working against us. Because we had to change the time, our ward mission leader couldn't make it. So we had a baptism with just missionaries and the Bishop. Earlier this week, I got an injury playing soccer. I was in a cast from my ankle to my hip, it was so poorly made I pulled it right off before stepping into the water. We had the water as cold as we could so it would numb my knee. After the baptism ceremony, we went to the bathroom to get changed and Miguel had the biggest smile on his face. He kept looking in the mirror happily. I felt kind of bad because no ward members had showed up. But after the baptism, ward members showed up to support him. It was pretty cool to see the progression from contact to investigator to ultimately a convert. Even though his mom was a member we still had to teach her and him every lesson. I remember the restoration lesson in particular. I was telling them about the first vision and told them that Heavenly Father had told Joseph Smith that none of the churches on the earth were true. Right as I said that I watched Elizabeth's eyes get really wide, then I quickly told her that Heavenly father told Joseph to reorganize the church. And her eyes went back to normal and her mouth closed. I really enjoyed teaching this family. They were very humble and very loving.
