January 25, 2016

Hello Mom!

This week:

The baptisms, the sun, effective finding, overall work, and other things!

The baptisms did happen! We were so blessed by it. We had a really good turn-out to it too, President Lewis and his wife came as a matter of fact. But the spirit was so strong there, I could tell it. Sorry to say but I found myself a little over-stressed about it. I didn't really delegate the event out in the best way that I could. But looking back, I guess I was just over-concerned about having enough chairs and the font filling up on time. Still, despite that, the baptisms themselves were so strong and powerful. It got super quiet when Brandon, Tyson, and Lily were baptized. Like SUPER quiet. And I knew that the spirit was present there. Two of the priests in the ward performed the baptism, and I know that it will be an experience they probably never will forget. I remember when I told the one of the mothers, who was Sis. Van de Venter actually, that her son would be baptizing and she just about broke down in tears. Hoorah for Israel!

Also, the sun came out! It's been out for the past three days, which is more sun than I've seen in the past two months! Don't worry, I'm not going blue because of it. Whenever I start thinking about the want for sunlight, I just think back to the average day in the Vegas mission and suddenly I'm not so sad anymore! Still, it was beauuuutiful weather for biking! Which we were actually able to do, finally. We were blessed to have four new investigators this past week, and I know that God has prepared them to at least hear of His message. One is Jessica's daughter, who voiced her mother's concern to us that she doesn't want to feel pushed in any way towards baptism. We re-assured her that we were there to help her draw closer to God at the rate that they know. Funny, she actually had more questions about Mormon stereotypes, which transitioned into what we do as missionaries. She was really shocked, and I mean really shocked when she heard we can't go swimming, movies, games, TV, etc. 

We also met a lady by the name of Ilene this past week too! Last Tuesday before the sun came out, we were hit with a massive rain-turn-snow-turn-rain-turn-snow-and finally rain storm that we were out in the middle of. We had plans to go see a Less Active member, but it fell through, but due to a recent training, decided that the Lord had us down here for a reason. So we started tracting, and the first door we knock on, we meet Ilene, who invited us back! All doors after that were Spanish speaking or put-on-nice-face contacts. By then it had turned snow. 

Still, we went back a few days later, and whaddya know, Ilene lets us in! We get around to teaching her about the Restoration, and she liked it! We hope we can continue to teach her.

The last two people we met were a 17 year old guy and his girlfriend. They were referrals, and he wanted to start coming to an LDS  church. We taught them a shorter lesson, and were able to get to know them more. His name's Jared, her's is Crystal. They live with his brother, who is turned off to religion, so hopefully we can work around that. 

Yeah, not too much else happened this week. We had dinner with a recent move-in family. They have four children all ages five and under. The five year old girl they have is absolutely adorable. When we were leaving, she was dragging my shoulder bag, which probably weighs as much as she, across the floor towards me, saying something along the lines of "I got your bag for you Elder Camit!"

Gee, I could just hear Toefaeono, Delph, and Wilder doing that feminine "awww" just watching that. 

I am very sorry to say, but I am unable to send pictures right now of the baptism and the sun. The computer I'm working at isn't reading my camera's USB plug in. Oh well, we'll figure it out. Oh yeah, Broncos are going to the Super Bowl! Hooray for that! I really hoped I didn't just jinx it.

Anyway, you guys have a safe flight over to Hawaii, tell Paul I said hello! Ask him if he got my letter from Christmas, hope it wasn't too sentimental. Still, the mean white shirt and tag machine rolls onward. I hope to hear from all you guys real soon! Know that I love all of you!

Love you!

Michael