- So we have cars in our mission but these aren't just any ordinary car... these are cars equipped with a little computer called tiwi that yells at you every time you speed (it lets you go exactly 7 over) or go over a speed bump to fast and turn up the mo tab too loud. ok not the last one but actually now that i think of it i wonder if it would if we put it on full blast. But anyways... I got a call from the office elders this week saying that tiwi reported me as speeding way too much this month and that if I didn't cool it I'd be in trouble hahaha man I felt so bad but at the same time I was like seriously? Tiwi is on to me! I can't help being from california. I was studying mosiah 3:19 though and it took on a whole different meaning to me. So now to me it means "for the natural californian is an enemy to God...unless he yields to the enticings of Tiwi.." Never thought the atonement would apply to me this way.
- SoSo this week was probably one of the most stressful of my life. So remember how I said that Anthony was supposed to be baptized on tuesday? well we got a call on monday and he said that he was so sorry but his new job was sending him to orlando for two days and he couldn't say no because he is new. He was like I want to do it friday at 7 though for sure! So we were like alright thats cool we can do that. Then the next few days go by and we try calling anthony and of course his phone bill hadn't been paid so we didn't have any contact with him, the only person we were able to talk with was Julio, his member friend that lives in Bradenton. So friday comes around and we weren't sure what to do since we still hadn't heard directly from Anthony. To plan the baptism or not? We prayed about it and we both felt really good so we were like alright, quess that means we are planning it and are just having faith that we hear from anthony before 530. It was the most suspenseful day of my life. We were literally able to talk to everyone besides anthony...we contacted his roommate who said anthony would be off work at 5, julio who said he could pick him up from work and take him to the baptism..everyone. I can't imagine having to serve a mission in a country where people don't have phones...hahaha anthony didn't have one for like 3 days and we were dying! We prayed so much though, but 530 came around and we hadn't gotten the call yet so we had to cancel the baptism again. It was a super hard day. I had never prayed so much in my life as I did that day. Anthony ended up calling us at 645, saying he was finally able to pay his phone bill and had gotten off work late and was like Cuando me voy a bautizar? cuando me voy a bautizar? when am I getting baptized?? It was pretty frustrating. So that was friday, we weren't able to see him saturday and sunday was stake conference. We told him about the meeting and he said he would go. I was a little doubtful at this point though but in the morning as I was gettting ready the though came to me, you should bring the brownies that you made for anthony's baptism to church today. He could get baptized right after the meeting. I was like no there's no way...we haven't told anyone and we haven't even been able to physically see anthony in like a week. I don't even think he's going to come to this meeting today anyways I mean it's in english. But I was like fine, I will bring the brownies. So we get to stake conference and we are sitting with julio, his member friend and Anthony doesn't show up. I was pretty disappointed but tried to stay positive. 30 minutes later though, Anthony comes in and sits in the back and he had brought a friend! We got up with Julio to got talk to him in the back and he was so happy to be there! Then the spirit just told me, Ask him if he wants to get baptized today after the meeting...so I did and he was like heck yes! lets do it! So we went back to our seats, I snuck up to our branch mission leader during the standing up hymn he was like heck yes lets do it! then we saw our branch president leave the meeting to go to the foyer and went out and told him what was happening and he was totally down for it too. So he finds a priest from our branch there, they fill up the font during the conference, get the message to the members we had there, then right after we all met in the primary and Anthony was baptized. It was such a great service and everything was put together while the stake conference was going on which is crazy thing. It all just fell together so perfectly though that I know that's the way it was supposed to be. All the members were so supportive of him and anthony was so happy to finally be able to make this promise with God. It was such a great day. And we had that plate of brownies to celebrate. I learned a lot this week. I was still kind of confused about why phillips and I had gotten that prompting to plan the baptism on friday and had to go through all that and end up having nothing happen, but I was reminded of the story of Nephi for some reason. How they had to go back to jerusalem to go get the plates, try to get them 3 times before God made everything work together and delivered laban to nephi, then they went out and ended up having to go back again to get their wives. Why didn't god just tell them to do all those things in the first place? why didn't it all work out in the beginning? it's because we are here to be tested, so God is going to test us. He's going to see if we have the faith to follow our spiritual promptings, even when we can't see direct results of them right away. We are rewarded for our faith by developing more christlike attributes, like it says in mosiah 3:19, and when it finally all does work out it is so much sweeter and we are able to recognize it as a miracle. if it weren't hard in the process to get the result, it woulnd't be special. it wouldn't be a miracle. Hope that all made sense, i kind of just went on a typing spree today. love you so much, Im so grateful to be here and experiencing the things i am, even when they are hard. it's so worth it when you see the smile on someone's face the gospel has made a difference in.
love hermana baugh
No comments:
Post a Comment