4-15-13

Here's the pictures for the baptism. The last one was the little pond that our member lives at that we had dinner at last night. It had started to rain pretty hard right after that.

Family,

Wow......what a week. I don't even know where to begin, haha! But Thanks for your e-mails and especially kind words about the letter I wrote. It really means a lot. I can't really remember what I said but feel that I wasn't writing it. Has Jayson EVER born his testimony at church before? I think I ought to add a few items to my birthday list. Eclipse hymns CD's, and moleskin. I have a nasty blister starting to form on the back of my right heel and don't know if I packed any moleskin before my mission. So I'll look for some at Wal-Mart today if not, maybe I'll buy some duct tape. Oh, and for the D&C seminary DVDs it should be green and have the restoration video, mountain of the Lord, and others. Now I'll delve into my week. 

On Monday we had dinner at the Bishop's house. We invited him to come with us to see a less active couple in our ward who really want to come back to church but just lack the motivation on Sunday mornings. It was a good visit as the bishop and him scheduled an interview for the next night (Tuesday night). Apparently that meeting went well as they came to church yesterday! That was super exciting for us. On Tuesday we had like a million appointments. So it was great. We first talked to this one guy we helped move in in early February and invited him to come to church. He said that he would once his work schedule allows him to do so. He's never been to a Mormon church before so should really enjoy it. We'll invite him to the Single's branch. He is quite opinionated so it's interesting sometimes when we get into conversations. One of our appointments fell through later that day so it was rather slow even up until dinner. We had to go out to eat because the members who were feeding us weren't able to do so. So they just gave us money to go out wherever (I like it when members do that). Elder Andrus chose this new burger joint that was pretty good. After dinner we had a lesson with 2 new investigators of ours. They are a super sweet couple and pretty curious about what we believe. They already go to a church, they say, but welcomed us in anyways. Our team-up dominated the majority of the discussion and did a great job teaching and explaining to them about what we believe and answering our questions. We were jumping around the whole lesson, though, so it was rather difficult to pull it all together and do what Preach My Gospel tells us to do. But it was a good lesson and I was afraid to ask them to be baptized. Hopefully I can get over that fear and just do it as I learned in the MTC. After that appointment we had another at 8. The lady we were teaching that day read the whole May 2010 Ensign that we gave her the previous week. She took 3 hours and read the whole thing. She knew it those general conference addresses were inspired of God. She would be baptized already should her living situation be figured out. But we're just waiting for her to get a job so that she can move out and sustain herself. Hopefully the Lord can help her with that because I know he will. Wednesday we had a good lesson with this new investigator of ours who used to be a Cowboys cheerleader in the 90's. She is also very interested in the church but will have a tough time getting over Eternal families because she doesn't want to be with her family forever. So it's a tough situation. She loves us a lot though because we actually listen to her. Later that day we had our final lesson with our baptismal candidate. He was ready and really looking forward to officially being a member on Saturday. Later that night we had a lesson with this super cool family that we invited to be baptized and they accepted! Our team-up was perfect too because he has a daughter that has the same birth defect as their son. Their son turns 1 the same day I turn 20. Wow. 20 years old. Anyways, that took up the rest of our night. OHHHH! That morning we had a zone meeting where we learned and prepared on how to learn Christlike attributes. It was a good one. After weekly planning on Thursday, we went tracting with a young man and came across a less-active member who wasn't on our records. It was exciting yet disappointing to see the path she took after leaving home so many years ago (she's about Mom's age). Wow, I really can't remember what happened that day. I forgot to bring my journal from home. Apparently it wasn't that important. Friday was a miracle day. We went tracting with a young man that day and knocked on this door which appeared to have nobody home. They pulled into their driveway right as we were knocking on the door. The Mom asked "Can I help you?" And we told her who we were. She didn't want to have a religious argument so kind of said no thanks but after we explained that we want to have a discussion, she agreed and welcomed us in. We shared the entire first lesson and invited her to baptism. She's gone through a rough life and has just now been "saved". Hopefully she can discover us as the representatives of Jesus Christ. So that was an awesome moment for us. We also taught a lesson to another one of our investigators and got him to commit to go to the visitor's center with us later this week. So hopefully we can grab a team-up for that day. Later on Friday night, we had our investigator's baptismal interview. He passed and we showed him everything and what will happen. Saturday was the big day for both Elder Andrus and I. In the early afternoon we had a lesson with one of our older investigators and had a team-up with us. This investigator has a huge smoking problem but says he can quit anytime. He just enjoys it. I swear he blows half his retirement check on cigarettes because he always has a cancer stick in his mouth...even when we're there. I hate it hate it hate it. We see him progressing little by little. It'll take time but he'll get there. The rest of the day went really slow. I mean reeeeeaaaallllyyyy slow. We were so happy to finally have dinner at 5. After dinner, we rushed to the church and started the font at like 6:20. The baptism was at 7. We then went home, changed, and rushed back. I was worried that the font wouldn't be filled in time. Turns out I was right as the water only went halfway up the hamstring. His whole family came including his drunk father. We took pictures and Elder Andrus was going to be the one performing the baptism. After the talk on baptism, it was time to perform the ordinance. So....who remembers my first baptism in July with Mike? Yeah, it was a repeat. Our ward mission leader and I were the witnesses. After 4 times, we thought it was good but in the back of my mind I kept replaying that his knee came up. Both me and the ward mission leader nodded after it. So the congregation left and went back to the relief society room to wait for those who were changing and Elder Andrus went to get changed along with the baptismal candidate. I couldn't hold back and said I think his knee came up. The presiding member of the bishopric (I think that's how you spell it) said the decision to do it all over again was up to me. This literally was one of the toughest decisions of my life because I didn't want to be the one to blame to bring everyone back. So the bishopric member told me to go pray. I did so and thought I would get the answer right away but nothing really came. So after mulling over this inconvenience, we filled up the font again and I said that we ought to do it again. At that instance, I felt an overwhelming calm come over me like that was the right decision. I've never felt like that before. This was an amazing experience for me to build my testimony about my Heavenly Father and how He answers prayers. It doesn't come when you want it. Just like the brother of Jared sometimes you have to act before you get an answer. So that's what I did and the congregation came in and we did it for a fifth time. This time he was sitting down in the water and he got it for sure this time. So Elder Andrus beat my record of 4. But the overwhelming part of that day and event was the fact that I got an answer to my prayer. I feel like that has been the trend on my mission thus far: a testimony of prayer. Hopefully I'll have that memory when I come home so that I can tell you in person. After locking up and stuff, we went home. On Sunday we had a great ward council and I didn't expect was was coming next. Our whole stake presidency was on the stand for sacrament today so something had to be up. Turns out our Bishop was released! And another one of our bishopric members too. The new Bishop we have is super super cool. He converted from RLDS less than 10 years ago and is super solid. He's quite an opinionated man himself. Oh, of course, our convert had his confirmation too. The member he is really close with performed the confirmation. He said some pretty amazing blessings. Our recent convert then got up and bore his testimony! So he's super solid. After church, we had an interesting run-in with a homosexual less-active member. She became offended with the whole prop 8 stuff and how the church is so opposed to Gay marriage. It hurt me to see her turn so hard hearted. I told her to look at the eternal grand scheme of things and where she COULD fit in the celestial kingdom. Unfortunately we had to leave early because we had dinner. At dinner, we had a conversation which kind of hurt me because I've realized missionaries and members alike have been bashing more than normal to other churches. I have determined that that isn't Christlike so will discuss that with President Keyes with interviews next month. I believe I mailed you our only schedule so we'll figure it out, haha! Oh, I also forgot to mention that at the baptism I was to give a talk on the Holy Ghost but forgot it at home so had to just wing it. I felt like I did a pretty good job. Well that's my week for you! Thanks for being there for me and the support!

About that experience with the neighbors who bashed with us last Sunday night, they gave me no chance to speak otherwise I would've bore my testimony. Thanks for sharing those scriptures, Dad. It also reminded me of Matthew 10:22 "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that endureth to the end shall be saved." So it just goes to show you that the prophecies of the Lord are being fulfilled all the time. As a missionary, you kind of feel like Mormon and Moroni who were the only disciples of Christ left. That's what I feel like sometimes. Isn't the Book of Mormon awesome? It just helps in so many aspects of missionary work. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I met a person yesterday who came home from the San Diego mission 3 weeks ago. He knew Elder Johnson and the Elder who just went home with him from Bainbridge Island. I wanted to talk to him a lot but he had to go. I don;t remember his name either, sorry. Who's Elder Yates? I don't recall that name. I'm jealous of Billy how he got to visit with Sister Dalton. She is so cool. Way to go Cody on clearing 13'! Hopefully he can build off that. Where's Teradata? Well I love Mondays because I get to do e-mailing! I hope you have a great week this week and can't wait to hear from you next week! Let me know if you need anything! Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: I was at a less active member's house last Monday and heard this on the TV downstairs:
"Forever! Forever! Forever!"
"Hey old squiddy I bet Krabs is going to die anyday! Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward?"
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"