Hey Family!
Well, Wilma kind of dropped us. She called us and told us that we don't need to come over because she's not going to join the church. However she still wants to read the Book of Mormon, so we'll check up on that :)
So are you ready for the baptism story?
So Kenneth was baptized on Saturday! Which happened to be Sister Malloy's birthday. It was quite an experience. We were feeling like everything was going to go smoothly for once, but of course baptisms can't go by without giving the missionaries a high anxiety level.
Sister Malloy and I show up to the church where our mission leader is already there with our investigator Michael. We look over the baptismal program and it says, "Baptism for Michael Ray Moore." Our investigator is Kenneth Ray Moore. our mission leader got confused because he was picking up our investigator Michael for the baptism and it probably confused him when he was creating the program. So, Sister Malloy and I were searching for the white-out but there wasn't any, so we decided to keep it old school and write his name over and over again on a piece of paper and tape it onto all of the programs. super professional right? When Bishop came he had a big grin on his face when he looked at the program and told us, "This is a classic knox 1st program." Welcome to tennessee I guess! ha
As we are cutting out and people are starting to arrive, we are missing someone, the baptismal candidate. It's 6:15 and he's not here and it starts at 6:30. So Sister Malloy called him and he didn't answer. We gave it a few minutes and called again. Finally his brother answers the phone and tell us that Kenneth is asleep. Our investigator almost slept through his own baptism! He woke up and then proceeded to tell us that his car was broken down. ..... so he decided to take a nap?? (I find this super funny, but it was pretty stressful while it was happening. However we still managed to laugh during this whole thing as well)
Our mission leader was kind enough to go get him. Our investigator, Michael, made buddies with our mission leader so he tagged along. When they arrived with Kenneth, we had him change and then the program started. The rest of the program went pretty smoothly except right before the actual baptism, Elder Davis taps on my shoulder and asks, "Who are the witnesses?" Wide eyed I respond, "You are?" Thankfully, he and his companion jumped right up to be witnesses. Wow. What are we always telling people? no one's perfect? Ya. I was a bit embarassed that we forgot such an important detail, but anyway it went really great. We had a young woman in the ward give a talk on baptism and it was good for her to do that because she is deciding if she wants to serve a mission, so it was a good prep experience for her.
We also had a girl who has just recently come back to the church give a talk on the holy ghost, she prepared all week for it and did a great job. We also picked three people from the ward to share their testimonies of baptism and the gospel while Kenneth was getting changed. We had a convert share her testimony, a man who had been a member his whole life, and a man whose mother was a convert, which helped him to be in the church. So it was taken from different perspectives. This was good for the investigators who were there viewing the baptism. We feel that the program went really well. The spirit was strong as it bore witness of the ordinance being performed. Kenneth's brother attended the baptism, so we really hope it will make an impact on him.
Michael loved it. And he really loved when kennth received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. He kept saying that he can't wait until his turn. Michale writes music and he said he had an inspiration come to him for the title of a song or the first line or something, "2-0-1-3-(2013), a Mormon Man I will be!":D We are so excited for him to enter baptism as well.
Kenneth could really feel the spirit come over him as he received the Holy Ghost. It's something he will remember forever.
Everything else has been going really well here. We taught Gospel Principles spur of the moment, so that was fun. Usually I get super nervous when put on the spot like that. but the Lord was truly with us, so it was great. Oh and for Sister Malloy's birthday, I made a creation, ha. So I've made oreo brownies before back at home, but this time i decided to get creative. So i bought peanut butter oreo brownies to stick in the brownies and then for frosting, I used Nutella. It was pretty delicious if I do say so myself. ha. Then Michael's birthday was on Sunday. He turned 60 but you would NEVER believe it. no one really does, ha. He look like he's 40, no joke. anyway, we gave him a brownie as well. He's progressing so well. Once he stops smoking and drinking coffee, he's ready to go! He's going to pray over a baptismal date and then work towards it. he truly wants to be in this gospel. I've never taught someone with such a STRONG testimony of this Gospel in such a short amount of time. He told the class at church that he was lost until we knocked on his door. and now his life as changed. It's a miracle.
Well family, That's about all for today. I could obviously go on about all of the people we are teaching but then you would be reading this forever. I love you!! annnd I LOVE YOU! annnnd I love you! :)
Love, Sister Valerie Preston
