A Good Week and a Baptism

"So this week was pretty good! Definitely the highlight would be that the baptism ... did in fact go through! Man, it was such a cool experience to be able to baptize him, haha and for hours I couldn't stop smiling. It was really cool, he was a little nervous beforehand, but definitely ready to make the covenant. The thing that most excites me is that he truly understood the commitment he was making, and he's committed to the gospel and one day going to the temple. It was good to talk to him about it all. He felt very peaceful, which is very different from his normal everyday life, and the last thing he said as he walked away was that he walked away clean and a new person. It was amazing to see the hope that was in his eyes, the purpose in his step, because he knew that he had done God's will and that God would continue to help him through all the trials ahead. Now I just have to trust the ward that they'll completely welcome him into the fold and support him in the trials that will undoubtedly come. Still, it was an incredible experience, and reminded me once again of the reason why I'm out here. I'm here to help... people come to know Christ, to feel His love, and come to Him. [The man who was baptized] truly did come to know Christ and it was an incredible thing to see!

Other than that we had some cool little miracles. ... Oh, we had another super awesome experience with a lady we met just talking to people. We were on exchanges, and I was with Elder Williams in our area. We were going to an investigators house but we stopped to talk to this one lady.... We offered to help her plant flowers in her yard and in the process of course talked about the Gospel, about God, etc. We ended up teaching the entire first lesson in the course of planting flowers because she was honestly one of the most prepared people I've met. She asked all the questions that just led the lesson right along. Then afterward she began to cry. Apparently she's been going through some tough times and she recognized us as an answer to her prayers and a sign that God truly is aware of her. Again, if there's one thing that's been drilled into me so far it is how very much aware God is of every single one of His children. Of all their private struggles, fears, and doubts. Not only is He aware, but he works to fix them. We may not see Him working all the time, but He most definitely is. He cares about every single fear and doubt, and He wants us to overcome them.

We had some other cool finding miracles, so our teaching pool has finally gone up. Now we'll be able to start preaching the gospel instead of just trying to find. Oh, the English sisters in our district gave us this one guy they'd been teaching as well. He's from Brazil and so speaks Spanish, Portugese, and English, but better Spanish than English. So we'll be teaching him. He's also very prepared and very humble. So that was my week. The days seem to go by a lot slower in a car area though... The weeks still fly, but the car is just horrible. Haha, it's a lot harder to stay awake!"

"Anyways, I've got to run, but I hope you guys have an awesome week! The gospel is most definitely true!"