Two Baptisms! 4/24/2017

This week was crazy! First, we had stake conference which was a blast but everyone was super anxious because we were all going to hear the news of the realignment of the wards in the Lakewood stake. Because of size and lack of leaders they discontinued two wards, but on the bright side we got a chunk of each area so that is pretty cool! Elder Anderson and I are pretty happy because we now have a lot more apartments that we can knock!

Then we had two baptisms on Sunday afternoon! A is a little 9 year old boy who just moved up with his family from Bakersfield, California. His mom and brother are both members but he was not old enough when they were baptized a couple years ago. A couple weeks ago, late in the evening, Elder Fuentes and I had knocked on a little apartment complex and talked to N, the mother, and asked if she would like for A to take the lessons and be baptized. She agreed, so we started seeing them a couple times a week and he was baptized yesterday! It was so cool to see how happy he was for the baptism-- when he got to the church he started running to the doors because he was so excited! haha! And another great thing is that we are going back tonight to teach the father, P, because he was so touched by the baptism.

The other baptism was for S. S is N's step-daughter and had just moved here from Hawaii. We went to visit N's family one night and S happened to open the door and we started talking and she agreed to take the lessons and meet with us! She was really having a tough time with the new move and all of the stress of finding a job and a house, but she realized the change that was happening in her life when she would meet with us. She said that she noticed a huge difference from when we came and started teaching her and reading the Book of Mormon with her. Eventually this realization resulted in her making the decision to be baptized and to follow her Savior more in life. S was so awesome and accepted everything that we taught her and agreed to start living the commandments more fully before she was baptized! I know that her baptism will be a remarkable step for her new life here in Washington, and her family just got that much bigger!

--Side story so you can understand our stress on the day of the baptism.. Church started at 10am this Sunday and we got a bunch of people rides to church and everyone was set and ready and all of the T's were crossed and i's were dotted. Well S and her family were all planning on coming to church when they realized J, the daughter, wasn't there... she was stuck in traffic on her way home from her aunt's house. Church ends at 12 so we told them to come and make it for however long they could. Well one hour went by... nothing. An hour and a half goes by... no S. And at the last moment S walks in with the whole family with 5 minutes left to go in the meeting!! Pheww! It was just as stressful as a sports game going down to the wire lol. But we were so happy that she made it! Anyway, better late than never!!

Well love you all and have a great week!