Hello!
Here's what happened in my short week after Thanksgiving.
Saturday
we had our baptism of Hermana Diaz and that was really interesting. Elder
Martinez told me to baptize her so that was the plan. We had taught her
how the baptism was going to go over and she was ready to go. When we
got into the font, things started to go wrong. The font had a little
leak so there wasn't as much water in it as when we stopped filling it.
Hermana Diaz was also a little afraid of the water so it took a couple of
times to get the baptism right. She was afraid to bend over backwards
and just tried to sit down the first time. Then I didn't explain well
enough and I told her we had to do it so that her whole body got wet so
she began washing her face and her head with water from her hands. Then
we tried to do the baptism while she was kneeling and that didn't work
either. Eventually we had to get another member to put one of the
baptismal suits on and come in with me. We kind of pushed her under
really quick and then brought her back up but it worked. She was really
happy after that and felt a lot better. In the hour long baptismal
service my appreciation for her grew a lot as I saw her struggling to do
something that she knew was right, and eagerly listening to the talks
and testimonies that were given at her baptism.
Sunday morning the fog came in really thick and we could barely see 20
yards in front of us in the car. We were worried that a lot of people
wouldn't come, but luckily they just came late. Elder Martinez and I
taught the gospel principles class and it went really well. After
church we went and ate with Jovita and Juan, our recent converts. They
have a 21 year old son who's never really been interested until his
parents got baptized. The English elders came by to teach him and then
sent him to the nearest Young Single Adult ward in Stockton. He didn't like the YSA
ward at all so he decided to just keep coming with his parents. We
decided to go teach him and had a really good lesson with him. He
wasn't really talkative but finally we got him to open up a little bit.
We asked him why he wants to go to church and he told us he wants to
find peace in his life, and come closer to his family. We told him how
he could do that and talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how he
can find out that it's true. When we asked him if he knew how the Holy
Ghost work.s He didn't. I asked him if he had ever felt something inside
of him telling him not to do something to which he said yes. When I
asked him how he felt after listening to that voice he said peaceful at times and relieved at others. He then mentioned quickly how if he
hadn't listened to it one of those times he probably would have died in a
car accident with a few of his friends. Then he began feeling the
Spirit really strongly and started crying. We told him more about the
Holy Ghost and promised him that he would feel that same peace as an
answer to his prayers. He accepted the challenge to be baptized on
December 8th! We should have another 2 or 3 people be baptized on that
day so it's going to be an awesome day!
Well that's all that's happened since Thanksgiving. When we were with
Elder Guzman in Manteca this morning he got a call from President Lewis
saying his Grandpa had died so keep him and his family in your prayers.
Les Quiero Mucho!
-Elder Gaskill
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