Elder Oswald Almost Ruins a Perfectly Good Baptism

December 14, 2015

Hello everybody!

This week has been awesome! The last couple weeks, a lot of appointments had been cancelling, and we kind of hit a dry spot in the area's progress. That seems to be over now, at least for a while this

past week. We taught 29 lessons, found 3 new investigators, and we got Bernie and Sherrie on date for the 26th! They've committed to live the Word of Wisdom, and before we even talked about it, they had decided that they were done smoking! Some of our new investigators are a young couple, Riley and Tasheena, who are really awesome! They just get it, and unlike most of the world nowadays, they actually get excited to talk about Jesus Christ.

Some of the new investigators we found this week are two kids, Michael (10) and Garrett (12). Their mom is a less active, and the kids don't know very much at all about the Church. A lady in one of our wards was talking to the mom (Lynnette) a couple weeks ago, and Lynnette had told her that she wouldn't mind the missionaries coming by. So we tried contacting them a couple times without any success. Then on Wednesday, we were out with our ward mission leader, Brother Sessions, and we had some extra time and just decided to try contacting them again. And they were home! Lynnette and Michael seemed really excited to have us over, which is rare. Usually people are awkward at best

when we knock on their door, if they don't straight up try to hide. I have had someone attempt to hide in their garage when we went to talk to them; it was a pathetic attempt considering I TOTALLY saw him, but yeah, that happens sometimes. Anyway, so we were welcomed in and we shared a short message about Jesus Christ. While we were talking, Lynnette told us that a couple days ago, she had talked to Michael a little bit about Jesus, and Michael was considerably enthused by that, but that some of his friends had made fun of him for believing in Him. That morning, she said, she felt bad and said a prayer that they'd receive some spiritual aid. That evening, we showed up at their door.

I had no idea I was being led by the Holy Ghost when I suggested we stop by again. But we totally were. It's a small thing, but it's one of those little miracles that remind me that the Lord really is in

charge of this work, and that he makes sure his messengers go where they need to.

Also, Dan and Elizabeth got baptized! As always with baptisms, something usually happens to make us sweat. This time, it was my fault. I guess I didn't get the plug in super secure, so after I filled the font, it was slowly draining. When it was actually time for the baptisms, the water level in the font was about six inches lower than it was when I finished filling it. Elizabeth went first, and Bishop McCormick had to repeat the ordinance three times because the water was so shallow and Elizabeth's leg kept coming up. When it was Dan's turn, Bishop wasn't taking any nonsense, and he put Dan almost all the way down to the floor of the font (I was worried he was going to hit his head). So it all worked out. Next time though, I am definitely going to double check the plug BEFORE a bunch of the water drains out!

In other news, my 11 Month Mark is next week! I know I say this all the time, and you're probably getting tired of hearing it, but I cannot believe how fast time has gone, and continues to go! It's ridiculous. Also, we got some more snow this week! It actually warmed up to the 50s again during the last couple weeks, but that's all gone now, and it doesn't look like it's coming back for a few months yet. I still don't like the cold, but the snow makes it worth it. And we had a snow storm last night and it's supposed to snow all day today!

Well, that's about it for this week. If you haven't yet checked out the awesome Christmas stuff on Mormon.org, I'd really encourage you to check it out!

Have a great week everybody!

-Elder Oswald

1) President Lew...I mean, Elder Lewis, another District Leader in Cedar City.

2) Dan and Elizabeth's Baptism! From Left to Right: Elder Christensen,

Bishop McCormick, Elizabeth, Dan, Elder Oswald (that's me!), and Elder

Bright (since he was only transferred to an adjacent area, he came to

visit for the baptism)