The Four Baptisms.

So there I was, walking down a dirty city street, shivering in the brisk Cartago breeze because all of my clothes were wet, lugging along another big bag full of other wet clothes, starving from fasting all day, and feeling slightly embarrassed and inadequate... yet it was all okay, because I got to be part of helping someone take a huge step toward the Celestial Kingdom. How did I get to such a position? Let's rewind to a few days earlier. We told J----n that he would have to wait a week between his baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost because he had to be presented in sacrament meeting, so we invited him to be baptized on the 13th with J---s. He said no. He couldn't wait, and still wanted to be baptized on Sunday.

Suddenly we had a baptism to throw together. Meanwhile, Elder Velazquez was leaving the area and had other things to worry about. I struggled for a couple days to contact our mission leader and make a program without success, which left me scrambling to find last-minute speakers the night before the baptism. Sunday arrived, and I felt that things weren't quite planned out well enough. Oh how right I was. Where did things begin to go wrong? I believe with the font. We turned the water on about three hours later to give it plenty of time to fill. Things seemed to be going fine so we left the font alone and watched conference. An hour later, we checked the water level and were filled with horror to see that there's no way it was working normally. Water must have been escaping somehow, because there was nowhere near an hour's worth of water.

The bishop had the idea of finding a big stone outside, and putting it on top of the drain in case that was the problem. We did that, and it worked a little bit. But only a little bit. Fast forward to the scheduled start time of the service, and we're looking at a water level about knee high. We tried postponing as much as we could. The member J----n had chosen to baptize him was all ready and dressed in white. At this point we decided to take photos. About five minutes after the photo was taken, the bishop saw the member ready to baptize and freaked out. He said he had to make some phone calls, then talk to the member. Meanwhile, everyone kept approaching me all expectedly and asking when we were going to start, or wanting to do pointless things that were stressing me out. I hated it. I got so overwhelmed.

The bishop finally came up to me and told me the member couldn't baptize J----n. I said... ''I can do it.'' I don't know why, the words just came out. I had to go break the news to J----n that the member couldn't baptize him, then checked to see who he wanted to do it. He said it was fine if I did. I wasn't planning on baptizing yesterday, so I didn't bring a change of clothes. We'd brought white pants for the member, so at least I was able to use those. I had to keep my same garments and white shirt though. Meanwhile, the font hadn't really made any progress. The speakers did a great job, and the time for the ordinance came. We decided to do the baptism with J----n and I kneeling. It was awkward though, and I almost fell over with him. I was like what is this? Mosiah 18:14? That was only the first time though. I had to do it three more times. Once because he didn't get all the way under the first time, and two times because I said the prayer wrong. It was humiliating. But at the same time I didn't care, because J----n was finally baptized.

Elder Baca and I got a kick out of the fact that there was a twitter thing in the corner during confernce. #ldsconf. ''Mr. Jones'' by the Counting Crows plays ridiculously often in every business of any kind in Costa Rica. I hear it at least four times a week. Oh yeah! I was so into telling the baptism story that I forgot to mention changes! My new companion's name is Elder Gutierrez. Also from Mexico! Monterrey. He's always been a member. He came to the country with Elder Velazquez, so he has ten months. I did get my package at changes! I love it! Thank you so much for sending it!!! Oh yeah, I don't know if they showed the same in between conference things on TV as the internet broadcast, but Saturday between sessions they talked about D. Todd Christofferson in Central America and showed a couple of shots of him shaking hands with Elders in our mission. Guess that's why they filmed us!

Can you believe we get to talk on Skype again in just a month? I don't know which day exactly I get go talk, but we'll have to coordinate as soon as I find out! Unfortunately, J---s couldn't come to any conference because he was working. People have to come to church three times before they can get baptized, so we'll have to postpone his baptism till the 20th. That's a bummer that Grandma and Grandpa can't go to Sweden anymore, but I'm so glad they still get to serve! You guys are going to finish LOST so fast! Definitely be sad. The journey suddenly feels so short when it's over. I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Sorry that this email is so lopsided and mostly taken up by that baptismal story. Oh yeah! I'm also Senior Companion and District Leader now! Weird. It has me kind of freaked and stressed out, but I was fasting yesterday to be able to do a good job. We'll see how it all goes! Anyway, gotta go. Love you guys!

--Elder Hampton