Brooklyn's Baptism |
Let me
start with a story.
Once upon
a time last week it was fast Sunday. Two Sister Missionaries we were fasting to
be able to baptize in June. Right when they got to church, bishop pulled them
to the side and said he had a favor. He told them there was a less active
family who had a 9 year old daughter who wanted to be baptized. Because she's
9, she would be a convert baptism and the missionaries would need to teach her.
They said cool and asked when the baptism would be. He said next Sunday with
her active 8 year old cousin. They got special permission and made arrangements
to teach her. Then they found out they would have to do it in one lesson. So
Monday night, they met Brooklyn and taught her everything. Everything was
taught very simply. It took 2 hours but Brooklyn was a trooper and made it
through. She had her interview on Saturday. She got baptized and
confirmed on Sunday with her cousin. She was super happy and it was really cool
for the missionaries to see the miracles that come from fasting. They're
excited to see her family start to come back to church. The less active family
will be more active, Brooklyn got baptized, the missionary's fast to baptize in
June came to pass! And they all lived happily ever after
Cool story
huh? Want to know something cool? IT'S A TRUE STORY. And I was blessed to be
one of the missionaries. God is good.
Yesterday
was a really cool day. Brooklyn's baptism was awesome. A less
active couple we've been working with showed up to church! We've been working
with them for the last little while and they haven't been to church in 11
months. When they walked in the door our jaws dropped. They were talking to
each other last night and were talking about church. They said, "well,
want to shock them tomorrow?" Then they came! That was cool. Then there's
this less active lady we've been working with since the
area boundary changes. She's been less active for years. We teach her once a
week so we've gotten pretty close with her. We finally helped her overcome her
concerns and come to church. We showed up before church to make sure she was
ready and she opened the door with her dress on and ready to go! It was her
first time going in 11 years. Watching her take the sacrament was one of the
happiest things ever.
There were
too many other good things. I'll just list them out.
We had
exchanges with the Dublin Sisters, I was with Sister Hansen. She's been out
almost 5 months and is awesome. We got a Chinese Book of Mormon for our
investigator. He's awesome. We taught the plan of salvation using the BoM.
He would read a verse out loud in Chinese then interpret it to English. He
really understood the plan and loves it. He's getting baptized in August.
Anna is doing good. Her son is not. He had another heart attack and is still in
the hospital. M. wants to get baptized into our church! But the
Bible baptist preacher is still a bum and just asked them to be Sunday School
teachers. Of course they're awesome so they said yes. But it interferes with
our sacrament meeting. They'll still come to our Sunday School class, but they have
over commitments that they're stuck with. Marsha got her patriarchal
blessing! It was from Brother Mitchell from the Powell Ward. He just got called
as the stake patriarch! It was crazy to see a picture of them both, 2 areas
colliding! I made Sister Hall bike on Saturday. It was just going to be
for 2 hours in the morning, but it ended up being from 10 am-7 pm. Haha oops. We
had our last interviews with President Daines. I'm so thankful for his service
and example he's been to me and so many others. His insights are always inspiring.
After the interview he gave me and Sister Hall blessings. It was super duper
cool. I love the priesthood. And there was so much more.
That's all
for this week. Upcoming events: temple tomorrow for zone conference, exchanges Thursday,
Father's Day Sunday, NO PDAY MONDAY because it's already transfer week. I'll
email next Wednesday with transfer news.
Shoutout
to my dad for being the best dad ever. I love you!
Everyone
go to this link and watch this cute video about fatherhood.
Love you
all,
Sister
Barnes