Week 27 - Baptize! Noche Blanca!!

A good example of how my week went is by this poem:

Good Timber
by: Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest King
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the Strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

Monday: I did my usual P-Day things of emailing and all that fun stuff. Then we had dinner with the Bensons, they are a wonderful family who invited us to eat with them on last minute because they felt like no one else had signed up. So we enjoyed a lovely meal with them.  Then we went home and started making the refreshments for the baptism on Tuesday. We made these awesome pumpkin Logs that I will have to send the Recipe for.   It is Wonderful.
Tuesday morning we went to the Buckner church building to start filling the font for Shaunda's baptism. We went in and turned on the water and let it run for a little while and then the water went cold so we went to turn it off and the pipe burst and water went spraying everywhere, I wasn't sure if it had just popped off or if it had an actual hole in it so I shoved one of those cobweb ceiling cleaner things into the source of where the water was coming out so that I wouldn't get soaked when I tried finding out what was wrong. I reached in and felt the pipe, and there was in fact a big hole on the other side of the pipe. While that was happening Sister McDermott was calling people to find out how to turn off the water. As she called I stood there watching the water spray out of the wall when suddenly the entire font rips out of the ground.  For a moment I thought it was an earthquake. but nothing but the font was moving. My companion came running in afraid that I had been swallowed by the ground. or had been impaled by flying pipe pieces or something. But I was fine, but the font wasn't. Lucky for us Elder Egan was already filling the font in the 13th street building for the other baptisms. so we changed locations and Shaunda was successfully baptized by Brother Hamilton at 10:30am. After her baptism we served the refreshments we made and then gave her the extra two logs.  She loved it. and she loved her baptism. After her baptism we waited for everyone else who was going to be baptized to arrive and after the baptisms we worked in the office.   That night we spent Christmas Eve with the Relief Society President Sister Hamilton and her husband. The Elders, Elder Blaylock, and Elder Cottle were there as well and a little girl who was is a Balzer.

Wednesday it was Christmas!!! That morning we did our studies and then we drove out to the Hamilton’s house and parked.  We then walked about 5 miles, there and back, passing out Books of Mormon the whole time. I had put a whole box of Books of Mormon in my backpack.   We successfully passed them out along with DVD's “Joy to the World”, and “Faith in Jesus Christ”.. So we passed out 40 Books of Mormon and 30 DVD's.  Then I got to Skype Mom and Dad. and everyone else was on the conference call. I had no idea what was going on, but it was great being able to hear the family again. It made me a little homesick to not be home celebrating with the family. But I am definitely in the right place right now.  After Skyping we went to dinner with the Senior Missionaries Elder and Sister Black. After Dinner we went to the Church and then went and picked up the Park Hill sisters, Sister Prince and Sister Kuchin. We then went Caroling with our district.
Thursday we worked at the office all day updating paperwork, and other fun stuff.  We then had dinner with our Branch President for the YSA Branch.  It was awkward. We then went and did our weekly planning.

Friday: We went and saw our investigator Andrea who said she wanted to be a Jehovah Witness... she changed her mind. I think she changed her mind right after she called us on Christmas and said “Merry Christmas”.  After our lesson with her, we drove to our district meeting where we talked about how we have to be patient with our investigators.  He made it into a Nascar analogy. How a car needs certain things to run, and then an investigator needs things to be able to keep living the gospel. We then went to this Church and had Bible "study" with this woman who invited us to come study with her. Her Preacher came in and started "teaching" us... their interpretation of the bible is hilarious. I don't think anyone else would have that thought about the scriptures.  At the end they let me come up and talk about the Bible for a little bit, I taught the Plan of Salvation. At the end, the woman started asking questions and we talked about Joseph Smith and she asked "How do you know he didn't just make up the whole thing?" I boldly testified of Joseph Smith and said "Why would any person go through so much persecution and eventually die for something that he just made up? I would not go out and give my life for Christ unless I knew for a surety that it was something that was true." She was stunned silent and didn't bash us anymore, We remained civil the entire discussion.  At the end we left and the other woman in the room thanked us saying that she ‘learned a lot’.

Saturday we went to Judy Mill’s baptism. Judy was finally baptized! I don't know if she really understands what the importance of the Gospel and keeping the Sabbath day holy.  After the baptism, we went and ate lunch at Olive Garden.   After that my body decided to give up. I was so sick that I could hardly think straight. So we were given permission to do exchanges with College Hill sisters; I went with Sister Phadnis who was also very sick, while sister Herrin went out with Sister McDermott. I slept almost the whole day.

Sunday We went to church and Shaunda got confirmed and it was so wonderful. It is a 5th Sunday so everyone stayed together the entire time. Gospel doctrine was very long.  The teacher went on and on with no one really understanding what she was saying... then for the combined meeting bishop gave a wonderful lesson on what our purpose was as members. Deeba Kimmel was having a hard day.  She has had a very hard month and someone made a comment to her and it just tipped the glass and she just shattered.   Luckily we got her to calm down, but she was still very upset and refused to go to any more of Church.  After we got done with Harrison Park ward we waited for the YSA Branch to start, Elder Jones brought us some muffins and ravioli to eat for lunch because we had forgotten to pack a lunch. Going to church for 6 hours is very draining. The YSA Branch that day consisted of about 15 people.   It was a sad sight. We then went to the Oxborrow’s house for dinner.
This week was a big stretch for me, trying to work while being so tired and sick it was hard to stay motivated, but I worked as best as I could. Thank you my dear Family for sending me all the things for Christmas and all of the letters you sent. I have not heard from any Friends in a very long time so letters from the Family are the things that are keeping me motivated.
I Love All of You
-Sister Cindy Call