Feb. 1 2016

January is gone and same with most of the snow. I heard that Logan got a ton of snow over this last week.  Most we have had is a chinook for two days. It was really nice. It felt like spring. We were in the double digits. 

On Tuesday night we received a transfer email for everyone in the zone. There were a few missionaries that were transferred. I thought I was going. I also thought that I might stay. It was 50-50. I wanted to stay, even though I have been here a long time. I could do 5 more weeks. I’m not getting transferred. 

Wednesday we called Jeff, he was that referral that we got the last time we were on exchanges. We set up a time to visit him and his family on Saturday.

Thursday was transfers. We helped out with that because there were some elders in the zone that shared a car. We took them to transfers. 

On Friday there was a party for Jeff to celebrate his families arrival to Canada. It was hosted by his boss. They had it at the church. There was lots of pizza and wings.   

After the party we had a baptism! 

Before they added a new stake and before the zone changed we were covering a YSA ward. In that YSA ward we had a super solid investigator. She has been taught all of the lessons. She came to church every week. She had Preach My Gospel, and she knew a lot. She wanted to be baptized, and she could have been because she was 18, but she chose not to because her parents did not support her, and they did not like the Church. That was one thing that Elder Christensen and I fasted and prayed for, was that her parents’ hearts would soften. Over time those prayers were slowly being answered. Her mom allowed us to come to her house and teach a lesson, as before it was at a member’s house. That was a big step that they allowed us to come into their home. Even though her mom was not there or not in the room she still allowed it. 

A few days passed and we get a phone call from an unlisted number at night when we got home. It was her! This happened a 2-3 weeks before Christmas. We both knew that something was up because of the tone of her voice. We did not know if it was good or bad. She told us that her Mom said that if she gets baptized in the Mormon Church she would support her! But that before she gets baptized she needs to come to church with her mom a few times and continue to come to the Mormon Church, just to show that she is committed. She sounded really really happy and shocked that her mom would let her do this. She said that it’s the best Christmas present that she could give her.  

On Friday she was baptized. Elder Christensen baptized her, and I was able to be one of the witnesses. There were a lot of people there at her baptism! It is the biggest baptism I have been too. It was so big that we had to move everyone from the RS room into the chapel for the baptismal service. The Chapel was full. After the talks we all moved back into the RS and she was baptized. 

Her mom, dad, sister, grandma, cousin(s), friends, and ward were there. There were a lot of non members there. I do not have pictures of it but I will get them on Wednesday when I see Christensen. I will have him send the pictures to my camera then.

Our lesson on Saturday with Jeff went really well! He is so prepared! He knows the Church is true, and he wants to be baptized. He wants his wife to be baptized with him but she is shy around us and she is Catholic. We taught the first lesson to Jeff. His wife walked out because the baby was crying. We continued to teach Jeff. He accepted all of it. We put him on date for baptism on February 27. He said that he would be baptized with his wife together or not, but he really wants it to be together. Because he does not live in our area we had to pass him off to the sister missionaries. Which is sad but I think they will be perfect for his wife. I can see them getting baptized on the 27. 

Last Sunday was the 5th Sunday, the theme for Sacrament Meeting was Missionary Work. I gave a talk. Our ward mission leader, Elder Owens and I all gave a talk. We taught the first lesson but we broke up the points and made it into 3 different talks. It went really well!