Diamond in the Rough

Ruby is 9 years old and very much like our friend Aladdin, a diamond in the rough.  This sweet, very shy, little girl was piled underneath a large family of less actives and non members.  We've been teaching her since I arrived here in Fuentes, and it has not been easy.  It took a lot of digging and polishing to get this ruby to shine.  For starters, it's hard for her to remember things, so we had to teach lessons over and over and over again... and then one more time just to make sure she got it.  But couple that with how shy she is... she hardly ever spoke when we asked her questions and never liked praying in public.  Trying to get her to church on Sundays was another thing all together.  With an alcoholic, non member father who kept her less active mother from going on Sunday, we were left with only the support of her cousin, an R.M., and the only active member of her family.  Oh, and did I mention that we had to get permission to baptize Ruby from her father that didn't want anything to do with the church (trust me we tried teaching him).

But we did it.  I still can't believe it, honestly.  There were times, especially in that last week before her baptism, when I thought of washing my hands from the situation and saying, "Alright, Padre Celestial, you want her to get baptized?  You make it happen.  I ain't got nothin' left."  And if there is anything we can learn from the scriptures it's that if you taunt God with your hand of a full house, He'll show you His 20 stacks of pure Aces.  But I'm not one for card games so if that analogy doesn't make since....well, you get my point.  He made it work.  All the tiny, oddly shaped puzzle pieces managed to fit together an Ruby was baptized and confirmed.

Ruby will be an example for her family.  Even though she had a hard time remembering everything we taught, she never faltered in her desire to be baptized.  She new it was important and regardless of what others said she wanted it to happen.  Through her, her family will reactivate, and her dad will join the church.  I just know it.

Ruby's Baptism