So...
There's still snow on the ground. And snow is still falling. Haven't seen
grass since before Christmas pretty much. We have to hit the turning point soon
though, right? Frisbee weather will be nice for P-days once it comes.
As great as the week ended, there was a lot that led up to it. So let me
explain a bit:
Last week I alluded a little to a problem that we had for keeping the
Zhuckkahosees on date for the 23rd. James, the dad, didn't show up at church
last week. That meant that he had only been to church once and was scheduled to
be baptized on the 23rd... which is pretty against mission policy. We had a
meeting with the Mission President afterwards (that training I talked about) and
we pulled President Moffat aside afterwards and talked with him about the
situation. He told us with James' willingness and the rest of the family being
ready, we could go ahead anyways.
So all was well, until Thursday night when we got a text from James that
read, "Can u take mara off an call her at house ph tx". So we called the house
and I had an hour long conversation with Mara about her drive for Catholicism vs
Mormonism, her leadership in the family as the oldest, and a couple other
concerns. It ended with a couple action points: to make a pros and cons list of
her two paths she could follow, to pray and listen for the Spirit, to fast (and
we'd fast with her), and to, when she went to temple square with her family the
next day, if she felt the Spirit, to take that as her answer.
So, with that chewing on us, we planned again for temple square on
Saturday. I hadn't done one of these trips since I was with Elder Davidson back
in my first 3 weeks in the mission, so it'd been a while. We called in
beforehand and kind told the tsquared sisters the updates since we'd originally
set up the appointment on Wednesday, and asked for powerful teaching sisters
:)
They didn't disappoint. By the time we got out of the family presentation,
"God's Plan", Mara and her mother were in tears, and the Spirit was so strong.
And so they all were baptized on Saturday as a family, to prepare to go to the
temple. How often do you get to be a part of something like this on your
mission? Props to T^2 sisters as well - that's definitely one of the BEST
opportunities we have as SLCC missionaries.
So Saturday came, and I got to do the baptism ordinance for all four of
them (James, Mara, Kaneysa, and Kamaywen - the mom, Monica, was a member
already). It was scary but awesome. Their hair is all long and one of them
blocked the little plaque so I did it from memory, but they all worked on the
first time. This is more stressful than the sacrament prayers... but a lot more
satisfying I think. Confirmations went swimmingly as well
Anyways, other than that... a new SLC mission, the East. We haven't heard
anything about its boundaries yet but I assume it's not going to effect us.
We're already so small. My guess is it takes everything north of Sandy and east
of Murray, right up against the mountains, including the houses on the foothills
and everything. But we'll see.
I think I've written enough... Bernie is still on for March 9th even though
he didn't make it to church this week - had to work. Will be interviewed this
week.
The whole world is white right now,
Elder Chandler
PS: The letter is my spiritual thought this week. My studies as of late
have been reading through the Book of Mormon and following every single
footnote. And it's been awesome. I'm going to do it for the first 20 pages is
all as a "deep clean" study so I know those pages in and out when I ask people
to read them. I'm averaging about 4 verses a study. I have insights but no time
to type them so, later I will.
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