Four Months - 08/13/12

I've been a missionary for four months now. Does it feel like that long to you?

Well, we had a lot of interesting little stories this week. I guess the most pertinent is "O" finally got baptized! She's been meeting with missionaries for years. She remembers them knocking on her door three or four years ago. Granted, we haven't been in constant contact with her since then, but she's met a lot of missionaries over that time, for sure. I think what made the difference for her was watching the April General Conference talks (all of them!) and gaining a testimony that our church is the one true church that is led by a living prophet right now. For the longest time, she's been insisting that there is virtually no difference between what Mormons believe and what she personally believes (even things like temple worship and degrees of glory, that nobody else teaches), and that her baptism into the Methodist church as a child was good enough to show her devotion to God. But after watching the entirety of the Conference DVD, she started to change her tune a little bit, and once we got her some good fellowshipping friends in the ward, she decided to get baptized the proper way.

"O" spent most of her working life as a secretary in the local school systems, so she has a love of children. She also knows a lot of families in the ward, because she interacted with their kids growing up. For her baptismal service, we organized a Primary Children Ensemble to sing primary songs for her as a special musical number. It brought her to tears. I knew it would be a good idea. I'm so glad she enjoyed it, and that her grandson and his girlfriend came to the service. Hopefully they will want to pay a little more attention to the missionary discussions now. We can hope so, anyways.

At approximately 9:35 AM on Wednesday the 8th of August, Elder "A" and I experienced our first earthquake! It felt like the whole apartment was shaking. I mean, it shakes a little bit from the apartment downstairs, and from cars flying by the street right outside our window, but this was definitely an Earthquake. Some members told us how strong it was and how far away the epicenter was, but I've forgotten. That was also a good day for us because I baked lots of cranberry white chocolate cookies and delivered them to families in the ward. I realized a little too late that baking cookies in a hot apartment in the hottest part of the day would only make it hotter. But the people loved their cookies, and I enjoyed baking!

Two of the families we gave cookies to ended up getting priesthood blessings for the school year. That was a very special thing for us. One family has a non-member dad and one family is my precious recent convert family that has never had priesthood blessings before either (The "N"s). I was so glad that we were able to render that service for them.

Well, God is great, and his work moves forward! Love you guys tons and hope to hear from you soon. May the Holy Ghost instruct you more perfectly this week and this school year! D&C 42:61, 88:78, 130:18.