October 26, 2008

Share your thoughts and feelings of your first baptism. My first on paper baptism was Koby. He was baptized on my 2nd day in the mission field. I was glad that he was getting baptized but I didn't feel connected to him at all. He is 9. I mean, it was a walk in baptism. I felt silly and awkward. I knew no one. I felt unready. My mind was exploding from just getting in the field. All in all, it didn't feel satisfying at all. I felt like I had robbed someone's baptism. It's ok though, because I became friends with him later. I think I have pretty much explained many other baptisms. I don't talk about this one much, just because it doesn't feel like it was mine.

In your first wonderful letter you asked about the seasons here. Man, it's getting cold for my liking here in Texas. It gets to 50 degrees in the mornings. You know how I hate the cold. It's still pretty warm in the day though. It did rain here in seguin... I wish it would do that more. We don't have seasons in Texas. It never turns into Autumn. Leaves do fall, but they don't change color on the trees. It's kinda like the tree sheds it's leaves. It rains when ever it feels like it. We don't get snow, but if it rains during the day, it gets cold enough at night to turn the ground into ice in winter time. I hear spring time here is way awesome! Tons of Texas wild flowers. I LOVE RAIN TOO!

Guess what prayer of ours finally got answered?!? CHRIS IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! That's right. Es verdad! Can you believe it? I always knew he would, I just didn't know if I would see it. He is getting baptized on the 9th of November. Here is how it went down. Chris had been canceling on us for family stuff he needed to do. It was a big bummer. He kept coming up with really stupid doubts. Anyways, because he had been canceling, we hadn't seen him in a while. His wife called and said that Chris had too many questions that she couldn't answer and that we needed to come over and make an appointment. She's really cute, she always makes phone calls to us behind his back to keep us updated on him. She really wanted him baptized. So we called Chris and made an appointment with him that day. Side note: A general authority came from the 70 earlier this week to talk to our mission. He he talked about using the BOM more in our teaching will lead to more baptisms. I felt like we needed to read Alma 32 with Chris focusing on acting on the spirit. So we did. The spirit was there so strong! After we finished teaching, we asked him what he thought. He said "this teaches me I need to make the next step which is baptism, but I don't know." I said "where did you get baptism?" Man, all I can say is that the Lord blinded my eyes. Read Alma 32:16. I then pointed to him and said "Chris, that is the spirit telling you what you need to do. Think how much more that scripture means to you now because it was taught to you by the spirit." How could no one point out verse 16? That was a bombin' scripture! It's cause the Lord knows what he's doin'! It was awesome. He said he wasn't sure about his family, but we told him that he needs to be the example. Man, Finger and I taught with such unity. We asked when felt good for baptism and he said the 9th and we planned it all out. Just another general authority promise come true. I love it how the Lord's servant's promises always come true.

P.S. I'm gonna be dippin' chris!