So for my subject line I typed baptism and the next 6 words were just suggestions, but I like it. :) baptism really is the way to the top!
This week we had a baptism of a 9 year old girl we have been teaching for the past 6 weeks or so. At first, I thought it might be a baptism just to get her baptized, and I was worried she wasn't really having experiences with the Spirit like we would hope for someone joining the church. Well, as time went on she started to share about how she would pray to God when she was sick at school and feel better, or feel good as she read the scriptures. More and more she felt close to God, and she always asked us the best of questions, e.g. "does God have a family?" Or "what is God's name?" The only problem was she is deathly afraid of water. She wouldn't even put her face under to bathe or anything. Well she practiced and practiced and prayed that Heavenly Father would help her not be so afraid. The time came for her baptism and, although a little nervous, she went in the water and was baptized. I now know what it means when the scriptures say "the Spirit descended as a dove", because peace came into the room with silent wings after she hugged her father and cried for joy. She asked to speak to us after she had changed and come back to the meeting room. She began reading but couldn't keep from tears, so her mom read the talk she wrote.
Pure in heart, sensitive in subject, and lovely in form, her message was one of the best I've heard from anyone I've taught, let alone a 9 year old girl. She told everyone she learned a few things from the missionaries: 1) God will always be there for you when you need Him 2) He will answer your prayers 3) don't drink tea, coffee, or alcohol, smoke, or do drugs and 4) baptism can help you be close to God. She shared a scripture from Matthew about baptism (one she had studied on her own; we had never read from the New Testament with her), and gave a pure and sweet testimony from her heart.
In addition to that incredible blessing, Elder Ward and I had another miracle. There are standards of excellence for our mission, which are essentially goals to try and achieve, but not quotas or anything like that. They include finding 3 new investigators, bringing 2 investigators to church, and having one person with a baptismal date. As Zone leaders, we have a report for these standards, because we are to be examples in the mission. Whenever we have a baptism, and we achieve the standards of excellence, the report lists all numbers on an excel sheet, and they appear all in gold. This is called a "gold bar", which is a pretty nice achievement and something fun to try and attain. Whenever we get a gold bar, during the report, we all stand up and shout "Hoorah for Israel!". It's funny because people that are new Zone Leaders or Sister Training Leaders don't know about it so it always surprises them haha. Plus we live with the AP's in the mansion, so whenever we both get standards of excellence we take a picture with the four of us, and then we put it on a wall in the mansion. I had one of these last transfer, in which we were all sitting on the floor surrounded by candles. (this was in honor of candle time, which, if I haven't already explained, is something we have done every night. I started lighting candles and listening to music and drinking apple juice and we all started just chilling together every night because Brampton and AP life is stressful haha) Anyway, that was a lot of context for this story haha. Elder Ward and I were trying to get a gold bar so that we could take a picture with the AP's and get a "hoorah for Israel!" at MLC. We had found 1 new, we had 2 at church, 1 on date, and 1 baptism. We were just short 2 new investigators. On Sunday we had no time because we had interviews at President's house and then we had to arrange for the baptism, so we sort of resigned to our fate and were just grateful for the baptism. It was somewhat disappointing because I don't usually pray for things like this but this in particular was special to me. Well this family walked in RIGHT at the time we were having the baptism to pray in our building on a Sunday evening, which is when the church is never open, except for our baptism. We met with them, invited them to the baptism, and they loved it. This young Indian family is now investigating and we have a gold bar :)
While that story was sort of convoluted and involved a lot of information, I hope it served the purpose of fully explaining how meaningful the miracle was, as well as share a little background about the nuances of my life as a missionary here in Brampton, and all the little fun things we do and enjoy. :)
With that being said, miracles happen, and as stereotypical as it sounds, when we look for them, we can see God's hand. The funny thing about stereotypes, particularly in the gospel, is we can either disregard them for being cliche, or we can do our best to see why they are what they are, and realize they are stereotypes for a reason. We all gag when people are stereotypical in love, but when it happens to us, we have no shame in sharing it and enjoying it. Remember to see people and their experiences as they are, and to find joy in all the happiness of others. Life is hard as it is.
Now I'll step off of my soapbox and say I appreciate you all, and I hope each of you know I love what I'm doing and Who I'm doing it for.
Love,
