#1 & #2 - Robert's Baptism!!
#3 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!
#4 - Sister King and me on exchanges
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Hey y'all!
I am so happy right now! March 15, 2014 will be a day that I
will forever remember - the day that Robert was officially baptized a member of
the church! This whole week we have been counting down 'till Saturday,
and it finally came, and it was awesome. :) We (our ward mission leader
Brother McLane, Sister Bonner and I) had some troubles getting into the stake
center, and then into the font... apparently there are two separate keys... But
Bishop was able to come rescue us, and even though we started filling the font
late, we were still able to start on time. :) The service was
wonderful - Melanie gave a beautiful opening prayer, various McLanes (they've been
Robert's fellowshipping family) gave great talks, Melanie and her kids sang,
and of course the highlight was the actual ordinance - Brother McLane baptized
him, and when he came up out of the water he stood there for a few moments,
just taking it all in - it was so wonderful! The spirit was there so
strong, and I keep replaying that moment over and over in my head. :) I
am so happy! And so many people from the ward showed up to support him
and welcome him in the ward - it was awesome, and he has so many friends - so
many people that are willing to make sure he feels welcome. I love this
ward! Yep. Saturday was probably the best day of my missionary life. :)
What else happened this week... the baptism kind of overshadowed
everything else we did... we spent a lot of time inviting everyone - all our
investigators and less actives and ward members and other people that we talked
to on the street - to the baptism. Unfortunately only active members
showed up, but that's ok. :) We were able to meet a few former
investigators, and one, Lourdes, said she would like to have the lessons.
She asked us a lot of questions when we first got there, and she has a
lot of respect for what we do as missionaries. Unfortunately she wasn't
there when we went back to teach the first lesson, but we'll get in with her
again soon. And we met Wilbert - he's a less active that we finally got
in with. We talked to him about faith, and he's really interested in
coming back to church. He's a bit self conscious about his looks... but
we told him that doesn't matter and that we, and the rest of the ward,
want him there anyway. :) He didn't come yesterday, but hopefully he'll
be there in the future.
We also went on exchanges with the Singles ward sisters - Sister
Bonner went with Sister Shell and Sister King came and spent the day with me in
Memorial Springs. I feel kind of bad, because she's in a car area, and
not used to all the walking that we do... but we had a good time and lots of
laughs together. :) While we were tracting together, Sister King felt
prompted to use a modern-day prophet approach, so we knocked on a few doors,
and no one answered, and then at the last door, a little girl - probably about
10 or 11 years old - answered the door, and accidentally let her dog out... so
we helped her chase the dog down, and then spent some time talking to her - we
asked her if she goes to church, and she said she goes to two, because her
parents are divorced. Sister King asked if she was familiar with the
prophets in the bible, like Abraham and Moses, and she said "of
course!" And then Sister King said, "Well, our message as
sister missionaries is that there is a prophet on the earth today!"
I wish I had a picture of the girl's face - it lit up! The light of
Christ was so strong in her! We gave her a pass - along card to give to
her dad, who wasn't home. That experience really made the scripture where
it tells us to become like little children come alive to me - if we had had the
same conversation with an adult, their reaction (most likely) would have been
"no there isn't" with no room for hope that there is, while this
little girl accepted what we told her with amazement and wonder - letting the
Holy Ghost testify to her that what we said was true. It is SO important
that we open our hearts to spiritual truths! That's how we learn. :)
I love you all so much! Thanks for the love and support!
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Have a great week!
Sister Ririe
2 Nephi 5:26
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