Baptisms Galore

To the Greatest Mother in the Whole Wide World!

I'm glad you liked my birthday card:) I put a lot of thought into not only writing it, but getting it too:) Just so you know, I don't really think you are old.. You can never be old to me, because you are my mother:) Also I'm glad you figured out that the letter was addressed to you, and not some other mother somewhere out there. How often do you check the mail? Because that letter should have gotten there quite a bit before your birthday. I actually wrote it at the beginning of August and then hung on to it for a week, and then sent it so that it would arrive closer to your birthday:)

This week has been absolutely amazing!! We have another baptism this Saturday for our investigator Tonieshia. We have been teaching her since I got here, and she is finally ready for baptism! We are so excited for her! It really has been a work in progress, and there is still a lot of things we have to do for the baptism, but we are working hard to maker sure that it can run smoothly when the day comes:)

Last Friday was one of the best days I have ever had on my entire mission. It was the day we try to set aside so we can plan for the following week, and so most of the day was taken up by making those plans, and we only had a few hours at the end of the day to actually go and talk with people and share the Gospel. So when we finished planning it was about three in the afternoon, and we had to go because we were being picked up by one of our new ward missionaries (who had never gone out with us before). The first person we saw was Evon, who was the lady who had been in the hospital a few weeks ago because she almost died. We scheduled an appointment with her and we went and talked with her about baptism a little bit more. Last time we had seen her, we asked her to pray about being baptized on the 26th of Sept. So we followed up with that, and she told us that it felt really good, and that she wanted to do it. One of the concerns we had with her was that every other week she would attend "her church" and then she would come to "our church" when she was asked. Long story short, she basically realized that she can't keep doing that, and she understands that if she really does want to be baptized she can't continue to go to another church. It has finally clicked with her the importance of Priesthood, or the Authority of God, and where it comes from.

We then went to go see a lady by the name of Virginia and her daughter Danielle, who has actually come to church 3 times in a row, and who decided she wanted to join the choir, and one of those Sundays actually sang in choir. We had asked her before to be baptized, and she agreed at first, but then a few days later called us and told us that she wasn't ready for that commitment yet. However, when we went to them and talked with them about baptism again (after about another month and a half of teaching) they agreed to pray about being baptized on the 3rd of October, which they said they were pretty sure would be a good day for them, because it still gives them time to learn more about what we have been teaching them.

Then we went home, and ate dinner.

THEN we went and visited this awesome lady named Endora, and her kids Unique (9), Quanaisa (11), and Princess (1). We taught them the pan of Salvation and then invited them to also be baptized on the 10th of October. They all looked us in the eyes, and not only said yes, but said with firmness, that they promise that they will do what is needed to be baptized by that day.

Anyway, that was a pretty awesome day because not only did we put 6 people on date for baptism, but they all understand the importance of what they are promising, and all of them are pretty solid in their willingness to be baptized.:)

Super excited for the weeks that are to come!

Sending all my love

-Sister Monica Walker

PS next week is a holiday, so I wont be able to email Monday, and will probably do so on Tues.