5 Baptisms, What a Week! (July 17)

Baptism and Confirmation Day for Richard, Wilfred, Austin, Emmanuel and Larry

Ciao!!!

This week was amazing!  I'll start with the African investigators...

On Sunday, 5 of them (Richard, Wilfred, Austin, Emmanuel, and Larry) got baptized!  It was an awesome experience!  I had the wonderful opportunity to perform the ordinance for Richard and Wilfred (the 2 biggest and heaviest) - anziano Boscia didn't think he could do them!  Then, in the sacrament meeting following the baptisms (we did the baptisms early Sunday morning before church started), they were confirmed.  It was going to be the bishop who confirmed them, but at the last moment, he asked if I would do it so that the confirmations/blessings could be in English so that they could understand and feel the spirit better.  It never ceases to amaze me how great of a blessing it is to be able to serve others using the Priesthood.  In fact, something cool after the meeting that happened was one of the young women in the ward came up to me and told me thanks because I had made her feel the spirit.  I told her that it wasn't me - it was God.  I am only a means - the instrument - by which God performs his marvelous work.  Anyway, during the first hour of church, we were alone with the newly baptized africans and a couple of the others who we have been teaching but who are not yet ready. After teaching a little bit, we felt that we needed to give some time to them so that they could share their testimony.  WOW!  The spirit was really strong!  They have and are continuing to change - you can see it in their countenance!  Right now, we are helping to prepare these men to recieve the Aaronic Priesthood and be ordained to the office of Priest.  Hopefully that will happen within the next couple weeks.

The story with the Africans, however, does not end there!  Sunday evening, after the services, we stopped by to teach Kelly, Bismack, and Frank (the 3 others that are not ready for baptism - yet).  Long story short... We invited them to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the proper authority.  They all said yes!  The next evening, going over the baptismal interview questions with them to see what we can do to help them prepare more, we were pleasantly surprised!  They understand very well!  Bismack, who at first said he didn't want to be baptized again, finally recieved a witness and testimony from the Spirit that our message is true and that he needs to be baptized by someone who has the authority of the priesthood.  Kelly, who has had many doubts (his family is Muslim, but all were killed a few years ago, and he worried what his mom would think about this choice; the other doubt and worry is that he doesn't want to go to church without being able to pay tithing because he doesn't earn any money - of all the concerns you can have about baptism, wow, it's a really cool thing that he wants to pay tithing but it's strange that it's the thing that is holding him back), finally has decided that he wants to go forward (but we still need to work with him a bit with his worry about tithing - it still bothers him...).  Frank has quit drinking alcohol and is trying to stop smoking.  We will continue to try to help him.

Sunday was a day full of miracles.  In church, we had 12 investigators!  Several of these were referrals, brought by members, that we have now began teaching.  I want to talk about one of them.  His name is Tiziano.  He's living with a lady named Daniela, who is an inactive member who wants to return to church.  They are in a super difficult situation.  Daniela was married to a "difficult" husband, to say the least, who was a large reason for why she left the church and started down the "slippery slide of sin."  She had 3 kids in that marriage, but now, she has separated with the man but is waiting for the long legal process of divorce (it will take probably another year and a half).  Tiziano, also, was married before, and he too was separated.  However, they found each other, and they love each other.  Tiziano is a much better man for Daniela.  He is elect!  On sunday, the bishop gave him a Book of Mormon.  Daniela has been explaining about the church to him.  On sunday he came to church for the first time and has been changed.  You can see it!  We went over to teach him and Daniela on Monday, and it went super well!  He told us that he is already waiting to be baptized - yes, that's right, he already wants to be baptized!  He knows that the church is a "good" church, and now we are helping him discover that is more than that; it is the "true" church.

Anziano Boscia and I are doing really well together.  I love that guy so much!  We both love serving together.  We still struggle to be perfectly unified, but we have finally found what we need to do.  It will be tough to change for both of us, but it's what we need to do so that we can be the instruments by which the spirit is able to witness to the investigators and strengthen the testimony of the members.