Baptism 3.0

Dear all,

So we had a baptism!!! Actually we had 3! This is kind of my first official baptism since I've been out on my mission, because my converts from liberty got baptized a few weeks after I left there. These ones are official though. AND I got to perform one of the baptisms!

So the three people that got baptized were: Gracie Herrera and her daughters Melanie and Mina. There was also a man named Adam who got baptized the same night. At first Gracie, Melanie and Mina were all planning on having a ward member named Brother Mather do the baptism, but then, at the baptismal interview, Mina said she didn't want to be baptized by Brother Mather. Elder Thomas, the zone leader who was doing the interviews, said, "You don't have to have brother mather do your baptism. Who would you like to do your baptism?" And Mina said, "Elder Wilder!" And my heart melted a little. She and Melanie and just wonderful, adorable little girls. And now their baptized!

In related news, I basically forced Elder Evans to play the flute for the baptism. It was pretty funny. I found a member who had a flute and asked her to bring it. I was pretty proud of myself. Elder Evans was pretty mad, but I think he secretly enjoyed it. And it went really well. He played as part of a musical number where Melanie and Mina both sang "I am a Child of God" with Sister Walton and Sister Baxter (the missionaries who taught Adam) and I accompanied on piano.

The next day in church, Elder Evans performed the confirmations. The Herrera family looked so happy! It was wonderful. And Kelly Bradley managed to make it to church for the second or third sunday in a row. She is doing great, but we had two postpone her baptism a few weeks because she was having such bad withdrawals from trying to quit coffee and decided she would need to quit gradually. The nice thing is, the new baptismal date we suggested for her happens to coincide with her husband coming back into town from an extended work project, so he will hopefully be able to witness the baptism. From what Kelly has said, he is very supportive of her decision and said, "well, we needed to find a church anyway." so things are looking good for Kelly.

And we had another new family at church--Willie and Trisha. They are young but Trisha is apparently really good at spitting out twins because the have two sets. In total they have like six kids all under the age of 8!

Also, the lady in the Spanish ward who is from Brazil invited Elder Evans and I to come over for dinner!  So I can teach my first lesson in portuguese since the MTC to her and her husband (although he only speaks spanish). So that will be fun.

Love you all,

luke