I Whip My Hair Back And Forth

January 13, 2014

The baptism went so well! J... was one excited girl! There were at least 70 people in attendance and she was very well supported. Her Mom, Grandma, Aunt, and even a few friends came! They all had a wonderful time (: All the kids of course were right up front by the font and Sister Clark and I were in the dressing room with J... I led her to the steps and had to kind of help her down because she kept complaining that it was cold. I just waited at the top of the stairs as she met President Johnson in the water. After the ordinance was performed she threw her head back and started whipping her hair back and forth and all around getting all the kids and ME wet haha! I was like whisper yelling, "J...!" as the kids squealed with excitement. Then, J... thrusts both fists into the air and exclaims, "YES! I DID IT!" Sister Clark got so red haha! It was so funny yet so embarrassing. I had to whisper-yell at her to get out of the font hahaha. 

Brother Wilde and I played the song "Baptism" as a cello and guitar duet. It was really fun for us! Brother Wilde is a very talented musician and it was nice to break out the cello. Sister Cook in the ward let me borrow hers. The sad part was realizing how much I've digressed in skill... Not even kidding! It was pathetic. Nonetheless I think it helped invite the spirit and J... and her family really enjoyed it (:

The whole event was such a testimony builder. Seeing someone accept the truth of the gospel and grow to love it so much was a miracle. Watching that happen, I can't help but to feel a confirmation that this is Jesus Christ's restored gospel. 

The church is true people!

A note from J...

On the 7th I celebrated Trevor's birthday by being inside all day! Due to unsafe weather conditions and a "severe arctic blast", the Ohio Cleveland Mission and 11 other surrounding missions were completely shut down on the 6th and 7th. The visitor's center was closed for the 6th, 7th, and 8th, so we were out for 3 days instead of 2. After completing all of the emergency preparedness measures required by the mission, Sister Clark and I had plenty of time to update and organize the area book, write a rap, thought really hard about exercising, ate a lot of sugar, and snuck out a couple of times to help take down nativities at the visitor's center. Our furnace was out for two of the days so we became bffs with our space heater. Also, the pipes at the visitor's center burst :( 

Many people lost power, gas, and had pipes breaking all over the place. Everything in the city was closed and no one left their houses. I understand that there are missionaries in Finland and Canada that deal with -40 all day long and my heart goes out to them haha, but Ohio is not equipped for that kind of weather. I am glad to know that we are well taken care of and that there are so many who are concerned for our safety.

Drying out the area book...loving the space heater!

I had this huge revelation one day to download the Family Search program onto the computers at sites so that I can index while waiting for chats to come in. Why didn't I think of it before! Everyone in the Kirtland Stake is praying so hard and doing everything they can to petition the Lord to build up a temple in Kirtland. Elder Ballard and Elder Seldon have given us specific things that we can do to prepare this area for a temple. We can serve in the temple more, submit more family names, attend the temple more, do more indexing, ask the Lord for a temple, and show him that we want one and will use one! While I can't do many of the things on this list for now, I am doing all that I can to help build up Kirtland by indexing and praying. I know and have faith that there will be another temple in Ohio someday (:

On Thursday we had such a great Zone Training Meeting. We learned and discussed more about repentance and forgiveness and how we could improve as a zone. We love our zone leaders; they are exemplary missionaries. The meeting helped us to learn how to use members effectively and gave us the motivation we needed! It was uplifting and inspiring (:

Sister Clark and I had a really fun day-we dedicated January 4th as a day of service for church leaders and ward members. I really got thinking about what you said on Christmas and I realized how much we expect of our lay ward leaders. We got the chance to de-junk storage units, do heavy lifting, de-ice cars, shovel driveways, clean kitchens, vacuum carpets, organize basements, etc. It was so fun, fulfilling, and a great excuse to wear JEANS!