"I'm happy, I'm exhausted, I'm happy."

Monday, May 20, 2013

 

This week was great :)

 

Tyler  was baptized and it was awesome!  He was so pumped up and excited about it, I wish you all could see his face as he came up out of the water, it was the best :)  He is way excited about sharing the gospel with his family, too. So far his family hasn't been too involved either way, if anything probably a little less than happy about his decision to be baptized, but he is confident that they'll want what he has- I think he's right :)

 

He was confirmed yesterday in church, and I was SO impressed with some of our ward members. We tend to have the hardest time motivating members to reach out and be friendly to people we bring to church, and new members.  And its not that they don't mean to be friendly, but it's like this solitary attitude permeates the atmosphere in Bremerton.  People just don't seem to know their neighbors, they just don't socialize.

BUT people were way friendly and welcoming, and one member even invited him over to dinner that very night :)

 

We had one of our investigators, Charles, attend the baptism.  He almost was baptized like....4 months ago, but then backed off a lot and has just been taking things really slow.  He's seemed pretty committed recently, but has been having the hardest time living the word of wisdom.  The other day we helped him break 3 packs of cigarettes, which is great :) but then he fell off the wagon again.  After that he seemed close to giving up, and just not worrying about it, but we asked him what he thought right after the baptism, and he said,  "Man.... I gotta quit smoking"

 

Then he texted us at like 1 or 2 in the morning last night, and was like "Guys I've been thinking a lot about baptism and the Church, and from what it seems to me, [side note, this is the 2nd time in the past 2 weeks that people he knows have been baptized] that once you're baptized you have a lot of extra strength in overcoming things, and you have an immediate support system from the church to help you"

 

How cool is that?!?

 

 

Church this week was just great, and by great I mean exhausting.  I forgot, but just remembered that I had to babysit these 3 kids and keep them quiet during sacrament meeting, because their mom was at church for the first time in like 4 years and had no clue how to handle them.  Playing Book of Mormon picture games turned out to be the answer. 

 

I love Sacrament meeting so much.  The spirit is so strong, no matter what else is going on.  Also, my friend, former Sister Grenfell, along with her boyfriend former Elder Alden, came to visit, so that was crazy seeing them :)

Oh, and we sang in church, us missionaries and the priests.  Very scary since some of us are very tone deaf, but it turned out ok.

 

Ooh, and we had the first of our new sets of firesides yesterday!  The musical group I'm in is doing "More Holiness Give Me".  It's pretty much the coolest arrangement of the song I've ever heard.  It's also one of the hardest choral things I've ever sung (not saying a lot, but still) but we had a really strong group and it sounded so so nice :)  Goodness, I love firesides. The seating arrangements turned out pretty cool too, I got to sit by one of my close buddies for the whole thing, so that was fun!  They are just so powerful, I wish I could bottle it up and give it to people on doorsteps,  and also take it home. I'm gonna miss them

 

Very short on time, Sorry I never can convey a decent percentage of a week, but I'll just say that I'm happy, I'm exhausted, I'm happy.  That was a good sentence.

 

Love,

Lonas