The Best 18 Months!!: Voy a quedarme en Renton!!

Alright everyone, this email is going to be a little different so get ready!
There was just so many things that happened and we don't have a lot of time to email today so my companions and I decided to each write about parts of the week so we could email faster. So you will be getting their accounts of some things that happened this past week.

First, let me say that this past transfer has been absolutely amazing with Hermana Peacock and Hermana Webb! We're going to be friends forever! Also with transfers, Hermana Peaciock will be going to Kent, Hermana Webb will go to Auburn, and I will stay here in Renton. Also my new companion is going to be Hermana Sasagi. I don't know her very well yet but I'm sure we will have fun!

So on Thursday the Ayala family had their baptismal interviews at the church. Elder Russell interviewed them all and everything went great! While waiting for everyone to be done with their interviews one of the English elders, Elder Kelly, played the piano. It was super great because he's a really good piano player!
Then it was finally Saturday!! The day of the Ayala's baptism! We had to get to the church building early to get everything set up and to fill up the font. We met the Elders at the church building at 4:00 and we had dinner at the church. They ate their panda express at one table and we ate our food at another. Total segregation. It was funny!
While we ate Hermana, Peacock, Webb, and I started to fill up the baptismal font.
After eating we practiced the song Cuando Me Bautice with the elders. Elder Russell was super nervous about playing the piano in front of everyone so he wanted all the practice he could get.
After awhile we checked on the font to realize that it was full which was great but it was also FREEZING cold! We had accidentally been filling it up with cold water instead of the warm.
So then we tried to drain the font, which involved Heramana Peacock actually getting in the water and well...it was just taking way too long to drain. We weren't going to have enough time to drain it and fill it back up in time for the baptism.
So our solution was to get trash cans and dump the water out. It actually worked and it didn't take to long. We got small trash cans and set up an assembly line. Hermana Peacock and Elder Russell were filling the trashcans with water and then Hermana Webb and I were passing them to Elder Spilsbury who dumped the water down the sinks in the men's bathroom. A little later Hermana Webb saw that there was a shower in the men's dressing room that we could dump the water down. That was so much easier!
So ya, then we filled the font back up with WARM water this time and the day was saved!
After that we set up chairs, got the programs ready and took pictures with the Ayala family.
The baptism was so unbelievably great! The spirit was really strong and I just felt so warm and happy inside! It was also great because not only were a bunch of people there to support them but so was President Eaton. That hardly ever happens! There was probably about 50 people there at the baptism that night.
After the baptism Audon, Maria, and Bryan all said something. While bearing his testimony Audon invited all of the investigators in the room to be baptized. It was awesome!
Then on Sunday the whole family was confirmed and they received the Holy Ghost. Maria and Audon bore their testimonies again since it was testimony meeting and it was really special.
Later on in the week we visited Maria by herself and she has a special gift or something for reading people because she read all of our personalities. She described us all and the crazy thing was that she was right! Especially about Hermana Webb! Maria described her perfectly!

Hermana Webb-
"Soooo as all of you may know, my birthday was on Tuesday! :) The big 20! No longer a teen, woo! Haha. My day started off by Hermana Peacock jumping on my bed and singing me all of the happy birthday songs that she knows. That was lovely. :) Then we had to go to District Meeting. We got a text before from the Elders asking me what my favorite flavor of cake was. So I had a little hint. But we walked into the room where we were having district meeting and there were pink streamers everywhere, balloons, and a "happy birthday" banner! I was so surprised! It was so nice of them! :) Then the other companionship of Elders in our District brought me a present. It was in the box of some protein bars and they had all signed a mormon.org card because they forgot to buy one. I opened it and they got me some sweet pens! I never thought I would ever be so happy to get pens before! Haha. It was all just so nice of them! And then the Elders in our Branch got me a little red velvet cake! After that, we went to go get frozen yogurt from Menchies. So yummmmy. :) Then our Mission President and his wife called and sang me happy birthday! It was so funny. They're great! We had a lesson with Norma after that and she had bought Hostess cupcakes for us! Then we had a lesson at Erika Perez'. We had no idea that she was planning on feeding us, but when we showed up she had huge quesadillas waiting for us. We weren't hungry at all. It was terrible, but at the same time, so delicious. Haha. We didn't want to eat too much because we had a dinner appointment with the Ayala's right afterwards.But we had no other choice! It was okay in the end. Lol. When went to the Ayala's and we ate fried chicken and rice and yummy stuff. Then we brought out the cake that we had made that morning and they sang me "las mañanitas" a spanish birthday song. It was so cute! And Maria put cake on all over my face. Haha. Couldn't break their tradition. Then! Sister Merrill, branch president's wife, called us and told me that she had something for me too! She ended up dropping by our house and she gave us....Seahawk Jerseys!!! We couldn't believe it! :) I had been wanting one for forever! It was seriously such a good birthday. And the best birthday present of all, the Ayala's getting baptized!!! :)"

Hermana Peacock-
"This week was one of the craziest weeks on my mission. First of all, The branch president's family decided that they were so happy with us this week (because we worked really hard these last two transfers) and they bought us and the elders seahawks jersys!! How crazy is that? not even knockoffs either. The real ones. Man, Renton has been so much fun. I really am going to miss this place. I have really come to love it.

The Ayalas are so great. So we got the Ayalas all ready to be baptized. They went on their trip and we were so proud of them. They stayed away from coffee and everything and they didn't even find a coffee substitute until a day before their baptism. They are so strong. So we had baptismal interviews with them. That was super awesome. We played the piano and sang songs to them as we were waiting and it was awesome. I really just felt like I needed to go over and talk to Maria, so I did. I felt like I needed to pull out my book of mormon and start reading with her. I was showing her some cool stuff and how I marked 1 nephi 11 (we went over yesterday and showed me how she marked hers the same) I don't know why she loves me so much but she is so awesome. Well so I was reading with her and she went on to tell me of all the times she had really felt the spirit. How the first time she came to church, she finally found the peace that she was looking for her whole life. She knows it's true. While this was going on, her kids were drawing pictures of the temple on the whiteboard with their family inside. Man, it was so special. That is the destination. To go to the temple and then to the Celestial Kingdom. She was telling Daisy (her daughter), 'hey daisy, I am going to get married again soon' They are so excited to go to the temple.

She told me all about how now that she was going to be getting baptized that her mom came over and was super angry. Fought with her and now won't talk to her. She cried really hard telling me that her mom probably wasn't even going to come to her baptism. I just put my arm around her and I cried too. It was so sad.... but she told me that no matter what, she was going to stay strong. She was going to be a good example. She knows that satan was just trying to put obstacles in her way to make it so she would not want to be baptized anymore. She stuck with it though. I am so proud of her. It was a super awesome night. Everyone got their interviews. They were super excited. Maria told me that Audon can't swim so he was super scared and I don't know how many times Daisy asked us if the water would be warm.. but they got soooo excited and wanted to see the baptismal font that all the kids ran inside and they were so happy. They were getting used to the font and we took a picture because it was just so adorable. One of the most special moments ever. We all just watched and were like awwhhh...
So then comes the baptism. We got there three hours early because for some reason we felt like we needed to be earlier than normal. So we start filling up the font. We could not figure out which one was hot and which one was cold so we chose one and thought it was right because it was warmer than the other. after a half hour, we went back to find the font like halfway full of Cold water!!! we were like crap! what do we do now? So i had to step into the font and unplug it and the water was freezing! and I was in a skirt! then it started to drain but not really... we waited a half an hour and it wasn't doing anything. another 15 minutes and it still was hardly draining. So at this point, we are like oh no.... The elders had set up the chairs at the church and were practicing the piano so we were like... umm... we don't know what to do.. we told them they would have warm water. So we gathered all of the trash cans that we could find in the church and had to scoop out the water bucket by bucket out of the font. hahah probably the funniest thing ever to watch. Then we didn't even have time to empty the whole thing. So we started the hot water. man, I am going to remember that forever.... "

Well I love you guys so much!

Hermana Soliz