Incredible week this week! We will start with the most important part, TWO BAPTISMS! On Saturday, we had a baptismal service for Shanice. It was excellent. It seriously went so smoothly. Sister Curtis and I sang a song called Valiant Faith. #crushedit. Shanice's family came and I think enjoyed themselves. We enjoyed having them, they are really cool. Shanice was teary the whole service, it was so sweet. Yesterday was her confirmation, she is now officially a member of the Church! Yay! We hope to take her teaching a bunch haha. Yesterday evening she texted saying that @shaycarl, the dad on Shaytards, favourited her picture from her baptism on Twitter! SO COOL! Like seriously, icing on the cake.
Sunday after church we had the baptism of the other investigator, the one that didnt have an address in Ipswich and then did and that was a miracle. I don't want to put his name out there (and sadly wont be posting the picture of his baptism either) because he does not want it on the internet, he comes from a Muslim family that would NOT be impressed. So for now we will call him Al. So Al's baptism was great. Funny story though, his girlfriend asked us to get a member of the ward to speak at it, and there is another member with an almost identical name, so we asked the wrong guy and didnt know until the day before! hahaha But they were all ok with it, it wasnt a big deal. Just a big oops on our part. After his baptism, Al bore his testimony and it was so great! Our first lesson with him he had said that he didnt believe Jesus was the Son of God, but he would pray about it. In his short time investigating the church, he has grown a very firm testimony of Christ's divinity. I had a huge smile on my face as he bore his testimony of the Saviour.
Both of these wonderful people are kingdom builders. And they were both born in 1994, so they are around our age and both are super cool, so I'm just really excited to be friends with them for life!
I was on an exchange with Sister Martineau in Norwich again this week. It was really fun. They have an investigator named Petya that I really like and requested to see, so we met up for some hot chocolate. Last time, we taught her word of wisdom. She is in love with coffee. I was really super bold with her and told her to knock it off, and this time I was so pleased to hear from her that she has not had coffee since! So cool! She is a sweet girl, I really like her.
So our whole companionship, Sister Curtis and I have been really interested in the doctrine of the pre-earth life, like who we were and what we were like there. We have read a lot about how the members of the Church on earth today were the really valiant, faithful ones apparently. It kind of solidified it when we read this quote from Boyd K Packer:
"You were in the War in Heaven and one day when you are in the spirit world you will be enthralled with those who you are associated with. You will ask someone in which time period they lived in and you might hear 'I was with Moses when he parted the read sea,' or 'I helped build the pyramids,' or 'I fought with Captian Moroni.' And as you are standing there in amazment, someone will turn to you and ask, 'which of the prophets time did you live in?' and when you say 'Thomas S. Monson', a hush will fall over every hall and every corridor in heaven, and all in attendance will bow at your presence. You were held back six thousand years because you were the most talented, most obedient, most courageous, and most righteous. Are you still? Remeber who you are."
Whoa. I don't mean to share that to be like, "Look at us, we are awesome." But it is an amazing reminder of who we are and who our pre-earth life selves wanted to become when we signed up for this life. It is a blessing and privilege to live in this age and to know the truth. And I think about how easy I have had it being born into the church and stuff and how blessed I am for that. But in the context of this quote, I have more thought about Shanice and Al and all the other people that have grown up in completely different circumstances and as soon as they hear the truth embrace it. THEY are the truly valiant, I think. God knew He could trust them to go into a circumstance of not knowing the gospel and they would find it and jump on it anyway. So whether you are a convert or not, just remember who you are and who you wanted to become back before the veil.
This week should be fun, we have an exchange with Cambridge sisters and MLC. Have a great week, don't forget to tell me of your Preach My Gospel studies!
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