Happy Monday! I got an email from my Dad today
saying that Brooke, my older sister, thinks I will need at least another
18 months after I return home from my mission to become a normal person
again. I would like to publicly place a trip to USwirl on the table,
saying that all I will need is a good trip to the movies with my family
and one blind date. We have witnesses now, Brooke...
This
week has been just as amazing and challenging as all of the other weeks
on my mission. I'm afraid you will all be really bored if I tell you
about new investigators and my area again, so I think I'll just tell you
about Raymond's baptism yesterday.
Raymond is a
62 year old man that Sister Schwendiman and I met on the street about 3
months ago. He is at least 6'4" and weighs 250 pounds. He's super
strong! He had 4 bags of groceries in his hands, and Sister Schwendiman
called out to him to ask if we could help him with his groceries. He
laughed.... saying he used to lift up the back ends of trucks for a
living, or something like that. We saw him later that day at the
library. He immediately became interested in the church and we quickly
set up an appointment with him. Later, we decided it would be better for
the english missionaries to teach him right off the bat, so we gave
them his information and, according to my forgetful style, forgot to
call him and let him know. In other words, when Thursday, the day we had
an appointment set up with him, came and went, he somehow found his way
to the Morristown building and called the mission office, got the
mission nurse involved, and had her calling around to figure out what
had happened and why we hadn't showed up. Naturally, the day that she
was calling around frantically trying to figure out where we were and
why we hadn't shown up was the one out of two days in the entire year
when we were at the temple in Manhattan, in other words, our phone was
off. Long story short, there was a huge fiasco and she ended up calling
Salt Lake and.... we made sure to call her back as soon as we could when
we saw the 3940982509 missed calls when we were out of the temple. But
that isn't the point! THe point is that Raymond had the desire! He found
the stinkin mission office! And the other point is that yesterday he
was baptized and I had the honor of singing at his baptism! That was
super fun! And so, here, attached is a picture of me, Raymond, and the
english elders who taught him. He can't wait to receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost next week.
Oh, you noticed that the man
dressed in white next to him is only 5'5" and weighs as much as my
right arm? Yes, that's Elder Packer, who baptized him. For those of you
who aren't familiar with how we baptize, it is by immerision, meaning
that tiny Elder Packer somehow accomplished the feat of dunking Raymond
completely in the water and lifting him up again. How you ask? It was
the weirdest baptism I've ever seen! Raymond kneeled down, and Elder
Packer dunked him forward. Poor Raymond looked like he was going to
drown, and it didn't work out. So they tried again... And I, meanwhile,
was in the back trying to keep myself composed during the sacred
ordinance that was Raymond's baptism. I love being a missionary.
I
love the work, the church is true. Oh, and the short little Elder with
dark hair in this picture is from Spain! Yes, I LOVE talking to him! I
am a spaniard at heart :)
Love
Hermana Millward
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