This was a bit of a crazy week!
We had a baptism on Friday, and we had planned to start setting up for the baptism at 5:00 (2 hours and 15 minutes before the baptism.) We were told that the font takes about 1 1/2 hours to fill. So we started filling up the font, and setting up the other things. First thing that went wrong was the printer was putting lines through almost all of the programs we were trying to copy. Once we got that all worked out we continued to set up chairs and get some Mormon Messages ready. I had the feeling to check the font, and I just put the thought out of my head. Like a minute later, I had it come back, "check the font". Well at this time it is almost 6:15 and I went to go look into the font,and it is like a foot of water. The font had been filling for about an hour and 15 minutes, and it only had a foot of water. By this time it should have been almost full. I got my companion and we started to get a little nervous and so we were trying to find out what we could do to help fill it faster. Well we go into the kitchen and we find 2 five gallon barrels. So we go to the Janitors closet to fill these up. Turns out the was more pressure coming out of the janitors closet. So for about 45 straight minutes me and my companion were bailing water into the font trying to get it to fill faster. After those 45 minutes people started to show up, so we had to stop doing that. It was only about 2 feet at this point. Austin and Greg both came early, and they were a little nervous with how low the water was. The baptism soon started, and I was running back and forth during it to see if the font was filling any more. We had it going up until the time that Austin was baptized. Well it ended up working out, and after he was baptized a couple of times, it was good! :) Well while he was changing, of course we had technical difficulties with the Mormon Messages. After all was said and done that night, it worked out to be a great baptism. I know that Austin will be such a great member, and it is so cool to be able to see the changes in him now. He is so much happier. This gospel really does change lives, and it is so important and it makes me want to share the gospel even more.
Sunday came and we confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I had a chance to stand in on the confirmation, and the spirit was so strong. I love the chances I get to be able to use the Priesthood.
So even though we had some problems during the baptism, it all worked out. Satan didn't want Austin to be baptized, and he tried to mess up the baptism several times, but of course, the Lord Always provides a way. I know He is pleased with Austins decision to be baptized. And I look forward to being able to see him go do baptisms for the dead.
This week we had another really cool thing happen. One of the girls in our front office was talking with us, and we got on the topic of families. We were both taking about our dads, and they had a ton of things in common. It was almost scary how similar they were. Well she started out writing her family members down on a piece of paper, and she said " I just need to make a family tree or something". I probably looked like a kid in the candy store as soon as she said that! I started telling her about family search. And it was cool, before I even had finished explaining it she was on the website and she was signing up. By the time that afternoon was done she had alot of stuff entered in, and she even had all the birth dates, and other dates of her parents and grandparents. It was funny we told her that is would be kind of addicting, but she didn't quite believe us. That night she sent us a message and asked if we could come back the next day and help her out some more. And she said she just couldn't stop doing it! The spirit of Elijah is very real, and it affects us very much as we go about doing family history. We can see it in just this case.
We read in D&C 88 That the lord will hasten his work. We can see that he has with all of the changes that have been taking place in just the last couple years. The push for family history, the mission age change, and the hastening the work broadcast. I love this because as the members and the missionaries come and work together we can help the work move forward on this Earth. And as we also teach about family history, and the members go about we doing temple work, we are able to hasten the work here on Earth as well as in the spirit world! Please continue to look for people to talk with about this gospel. This is something that everyone needs. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I promise you that as you go about talking with others, your mouth will be filled. You will know what to say to those you talk with. (D&C 11:21-22, D&C 84:85, D&C 100 5-8) We are promised that through out the scriptures.
I wish Y'all the best week, and look forward to hearing about your missionary experiences.
Elder Joshua V. Christensen
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