A letter from Colin:
This Saturday we held the baptismal service for two youth who hadn't been baptized yet (their mother is recently active in church). Being only my second week here I only actually taught them twice. Because the ward mission leader here doesn't know how to do anything right, we had to do literally everything. He really, really grinds my gears, but it's okay. The ward mission leader is responsible for organizing the baptismal services in cooperation with the missionaries, but to him that means he does nothing. He didn't even come to the baptism, but either way, on the day of, all of our pianists fell through, and the white baptismal clothes for their uncle who was performing the baptism didn't fit. Luckily (miraculously) for us, on Saturday the Stake was doing Bishop's Storehouse food distribution for those in need, and because of that the bishopric from the other wards were there, and they just happened to have just the right size baptismal clothes for the uncle! Then, less than 15 minutes until the service started, we were still without a pianist to play the hymns--and we ain't that good at singin a cappella . . . but just then, the only sister missionaries in the zone who can play piano walked into the church to help with food distribution and agreed to play the piano for our baptismal service. After the baptism we were thanking the Sisters for playing the piano and they told us that they were planning to wear their grungy service clothes to help with food distribution but wore their nice proselyting clothes instead because they felt oddly prompted to wear their skirts for some reason! We can be safe to assume it was because we needed a pianist for the baptism and it worked out absolutely perfectly.

         In other news, two recent converts in this ward both went to the Washington D.C. Temple on Saturday to do baptisms for the dead, and they told us it was one of the best, most spiritual experiences they've had. They also told us about their stop at the casino on the way home and how they lost a ton of money.... From the Temple straight to the Casino! I guess no one mentioned to them that gambling is kinda like--really against church standards. The irony was just too much, but oh well, they didn't know. We will have to address that with them.

         This Saturday Elder Talbot, President Weed, Sister Weed and I will be going to Maria's baptism, so I am so excited for that! This is going to be such a great week. Well, I am out of time, but until next time, I hope y'all have a blessed week!

 

P.S. We drove up to the eastern shore and we were 40 miles from Maryland! Ate the best shrimp ever, and saw tons of beautiful sea shore as we drove across the 17.6 mile-long bridge to the peninsula. We drove about 75 miles all the way up there to give the Elders their new car.

 

--Elder White