Yes yes yes yes yes!!!
B got baptized!!! :) Wahoo! What a miracle. oh my goodness what a miracle. As you know or may learn, baptisms are never just a baptism. There is always so much more that happens. And the story is always fun after the baptism but during the event you tend to start questioning yourself if you actually want to have a baptism again and go through the crazy week. Fortunately it is over and now we can just enjoy the story.
Sunday morning Sister matthews and I go to church, trying to plan our talks and lessons because why would we prepare those in advance. B is not answering his phone at all. We go to church and he is not there. This is the first time in 3 months he has not been early to church. Sister matthews and I were so terrified he wasn't going to come. Bishop came up to us in the first hour and asked if everything was okay. Yeah of course! Everything is fine, B will be ready it's fine. The first hour and a half was the longest relief society/gospel principles of my life. Sister Matthews and I kept going into every room and took turns praying out loud. We didn't know what to do! Then halfway through the gospel principles class we were teaching, who walks in, but B. he walks in and slouches down in a back chair. Sister Matthews and I almost started crying from relief. Then during sacrament meeting B gets up halfway through and walks out. Sister matthews and I were speaking and as soon as we were done, we raced off the stand into the foyer searching for B. He was leaned up against the wall. B had epilepsy, so he has seizures quite frequently. He is fine right after them and back to himself. But it doesn't always give the best impression or have the best timing. And it's happened so many times in lessons, it doesn't really phase us anymore. B starts showing the signs he is going to have a seizure so we get him in an adjacent room and let him lie down. He starts having a fit and his foot is hitting the door so everyone is coming over wondering what is wrong. I am standing in the door frame trying to calm ward members down and let them know that this is normal. Sacrament meeting ends in 10 mins and we are suppose to have his baptism right after. Well thank goodness, B stops after a few minutes and gets back up. Relieved Sister Matthews and I throw some baptism clothes at him and tell him to go get changed. We run back to the chapel and make the concluding prayer and then try to get the programs passed out and everyone sitting back down and get B and Curtis (who is baptising B) changed and ready to go. We got the pictures luckily. The service commenced. Bishop was nowhere to be found but luckily a counselor was there to preside. But it went great! All of the speakers showed up! Only one person who was suppose to say a prayer didn't come. Huge success!! And yes forget about convert baptisms start on time. I am just happy if there is a bishopric member there!
B's actual baptism was great too. Curtis baptized him. Curtis was baptised about 2 months ago. He is from Jamaica. He came from a very pentacostal church and often loves to add his "zeal" to the gospel. The baptism ordinance was just great. The font room is situated by big doors that everyone is trying to figure out how to open while B is getting baptized. Oh and forget about children in the front seeing the baptism--it is a free for all. Sister Matthews and I are stuck in the back of this massive crowd. We are trying to get to the front to show Curtis the words for the baptism prayer so that he doesn't add to much of his "zeal" but we cannot get to the front. So we are just praying at the back trying to get a glimpse of the baptism mirror with Sister Stevens (she was there by the way!! :)) Curtis starts cranking out the prayer while everyone is still trying to get the doors open and he shoves B down, but B's arm flails out of the water and we need to do it again. Curtis starts saying the baptism prayer again but he is not saying it right and we can't get to the front, so half of the congregation starts saying the prayer with him. I'm not kidding. Priest "having been commissioned", teenager "having been commissioned", mom "having been commissioned", Curtis, "having been commissioned". So this is great we've got everyone saying the prayer and Curtis is making it to the end and we are thinking, "Wow! He really is going to get baptized!" And then Curtis pulls B to the water and everyone is shouting at Curtis to say Amen and Curtis dashes out an Amen right before B emerges in the water. They pull him out and the 5 (not just 2) witnesses say, alright he is good.
Phew.
Sister Matthews and I just sat there for a moment and breathed a sigh of relief.
Baptisms are never just quite baptisms. Oh I wish you could've been there though! It is so difficult to describe what it is like. Ilford ward has so many characters you wouldn't believe it. Every member has their own personality. It is just great. They are all so good. We didn't call anyone this week to come to the baptism, only left a voicemail for someone to bring treats after (yes our bad we need to be much better next time) and yet all of these people show up and in the next room after the baptism there are a bunch on biscuits and drinks! I love the Ilford ward members. They are fantastic!
So yes crazy crazy day. And even more happened this week! Wow it was a busy one!!
We had an exchange with Sister Yau and Sister Lamb. I went with Sister Lamb. She is from provo. And we found out (quite randomly) that we are related! Ira Hinckley is both of our great great great? grandpa! Cool. We had to do some family history things and that's how we found out. Small world. She is great.
And I did have a great birthday :). Thank you so much for the gifts and emails!!! I loved them so much :). Man everyone just took care of me that day! Sister Matthews decorated my study area and then we had zone meeting and everyone sang to me during DLC (that's what the video is from with the different languages) and then at the end of zone meeting everyone started singing and then there were balloons and even a ninja turtle cake!!!! So kind!!! A couple of member dropped off chocolate and cards--i was very well taken care of :). It was a great birthday!!!!
Oh and MLC was this week. Big news....our mission has....exceeded our monthly baptism goal!!!! We had a goal of 32 baptisms and 34 were baptized!!!! Wahoo!!!! First time all year we have reached a goal. This is great news :) So good!!!! Romford zone killed it with 8 baptisms. There was a miracle in our zone in which a family walked in and asked the sisters if they could be baptized. Crazy.
Muscle Mark went to the temple on saturday!! He didn't actually go inside--don't worry we are not breaking that rule, but he got to go in the visitor center and check out the grounds. So cool! Brother and Sister Stevenson took him. Just fantastic people! Funny enough they are actually the ones that took Sister Cummings and me to the temple the many months ago. Mark loved the temple so much. And his interview for baptism is scheduled for this wednesday. Fingers crossed he passes!! and prayers said for sure.
L came to church!!!!!!!! YES YES YES!!! This is the best news ever. He is doing so good he is going to get baptized so soon (nov 20). He loved the service. And he stayed for the baptism. Sister matthews asked him what his favorite part of the service was and he said when B had to be baptized again. A bit of a strange thing to stand out and so Sister matthews asked him why. He replied that it was significant to him because it showed him that we really value this sacred ordinance. That other churches would just say, yeah it's fine, but this church was different. He said it seemed we really wanted to make sure this act was right in the sight of God's eyes. Absolutely! Very very neat thing to notice. He is fantastic. A bit tricky to get him to church and to read, but he is doing it now! Many miracles.
So many more miracles happened this week. Very stressful and lots of things to take care of, but miracles and help all of the time. Your prayers make such a difference it is incredible.
Love you and thanks for the gifts and emails and letters--they make my day sooooo much!!!! And I can't talk about how it's already 9 months. That makes me so sad.
Okay love you and talk to you later!!!!
Sister Soulier
PS pray for Sister matthews and me to stay together. I love her dearly and we have such a good time together.
more...
more...
Yes the members are rockstars. They saved the baptism. So very kind of all of them to stay and support B. We told the ward council that Mark is having a hard time getting a suit (he doesn't have an income--he is off benefit).
But the members here are so fantastic. As I said, Brother and Sister Stevenson took Mark to a day in the temple (he absolutely LOVED it) and one of the ward members from ward council came up to us on sunday and was super kind. His name is brother Omoruyi and he was wearing a big baggy suit. He pointed to mark and asked if that was who we were talking about at ward council. We replied yes and he said, "well, I have this suit and I never wear it. So I wore it today to see if it would fit mark. Would Mark like to have it?" (isn't this just the greatest thing you ever did hear??) And at the end of the meeting we asked Brother Omoruyi if he would like to tell Mark himself and he said, "Oh don't tell him it's from me. I'll just drop it off next Sunday and he can keep it. He doesn't have to know it's from me."
These people are so fantastic i can't even tell you. Some of the best people I have ever met in my life. We had a couple of investigators at church and weren't able to keep track of them because of everything that was going on, but all the recent converts swooped in and stayed by their side. I thanked them after and they said, "well of course! it's scary being a new member!" Oh i love these people!!!
Yes things are looking very good now. Much scarier last week but B got baptized hallelujah. And Mark has members looking out for him. Hopefully he passes his interview and can get baptized soon.
Oh and I completely forgot to mention in my family email. But MLC was crazy! Such a spiritual meeting I can't even tell you. President and Sister Aldrege came. It was just fantastic.
Oh and when president Aldrege spoke to us, my goodness. We just all got spirit punched multiple times. He said, my wife and i care about this mission ever since we served here. We pray and think of this mission all the time. Think of all the people who served here. Prophets were mission presidents! And you better believe they are fighting for this mission every single day. They are working with you now. You just can't always see it. But they are here. This is the first mission of the church. Angels are very concerned with what happens here.
And he just goes on and on and oh my goodness and then he gives us a training on Moses 1 and I turn to Sister Matthews and we are just shaking. At one point he says, "I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. I know he is an incredible man. He has progressed a lot farther now that he is no longer on the earth. But he is still the head of missionary work in this dispensation and continues to fight for it." We were talking to the zone leaders after like do you think he means what he is implying??? Oh man. Wow what a meeting.
okay i've written for way too long. Talk to you next week!! Yah sorry for the bad grammar. Not really checking back on things I've written.
Sister Soulier
Comments
Post a Comment