Monday, February 9th

I want to tell you about an amazing sister in our ward. Hermana Mazariegos translates into sign language for the deaf. She does this professionally. She is a fairly recent convert. Once she joined the church, she started telling all of her deaf friends about it. The first baptism was a woman who has been attending faithfully with her two daughters. Recently, the dad was also baptized and received the Aaronic priesthood. Last Sunday he passed the Sacrament and one of the deacons (probably the president of the quorum) shadowed him in case there was a problem or question. He did a wonderful job and was very proud of himself. Other deaf investigators have also attended. Sister Mazariegos translates everything for them. One slip up I noticed was when the sister received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Hna Mazariegos sat on the front row to translate the blessing for her. But the priesthood brethren closed the circle so she couldn't see. Oh, well. She felt the Spirit, anyway. Last week Sister Mazariegos brought a whole group of deaf sisters to the temple to do baptisms. Not all of them live in our ward. A couple of them had been there before and a young woman from their ward was translating for them. In both situations the translating sister stood at the edge of the font and translated the prayer and told them when to bend their knees and lean back. It was awesome. Spencer was the recorder for the baptisms and gave each one a hug when she left the font. I was the one to help each of them get the baptismal clothing. It was a special privilege.... This is a picture we took on Sunday with Hermana Mazariegos. What a great missionary and very special person.