Dunnn dun dun dun!!!
Hey, so we did it, we baptized that family and they are super firm! The baptism was a huge success. We had 31 people there which is like half of our ward. We had a little video presentation and after the baptism when everyone was giving them hugs welcoming them to the ward, they gave the parents some church books and the kids a cd, and afterwards there were snacks and soda for everyone. It was a way cool experience to be able to see the ward helping out so much. Then yesterday we did the confirmations and I did it for my first time (I should be embarrassed, but I always just let my companions do it or ward members). I confirmed Artur and his dad, André. It was such a neat experience. Then after the sacrament meeting more members came up to the family and gave them scripture cases, a hymn book, books of Mormon, bibles, and they gave the kids a book about the book of Mormon but like the comic book version almost (I don’t really mean comic book, but there are a lot of pictures and the scriptures are abbreviated for the kids to understand better). The members made a temple visit this week and bought all this stuff for them at the distribution center. Then later that day when we went by the house, Artur had already read the first couple pages about Joseph Smith and had a question about it, so then we started to explain some things to him when his sister asked another question and then something really neat happened. Artur turned to her, explained the whole story perfectly, detail for detail, and with such ease too, and I almost had a vision of him just serving a mission in the future explaining those exact things for another family. I didn’t have any kind of girly situation where I started crying, but I did get super excited when I saw how much they all were progressing and thinking about him serving a mission in the future.
Hey, so we did it, we baptized that family and they are super firm! The baptism was a huge success. We had 31 people there which is like half of our ward. We had a little video presentation and after the baptism when everyone was giving them hugs welcoming them to the ward, they gave the parents some church books and the kids a cd, and afterwards there were snacks and soda for everyone. It was a way cool experience to be able to see the ward helping out so much. Then yesterday we did the confirmations and I did it for my first time (I should be embarrassed, but I always just let my companions do it or ward members). I confirmed Artur and his dad, André. It was such a neat experience. Then after the sacrament meeting more members came up to the family and gave them scripture cases, a hymn book, books of Mormon, bibles, and they gave the kids a book about the book of Mormon but like the comic book version almost (I don’t really mean comic book, but there are a lot of pictures and the scriptures are abbreviated for the kids to understand better). The members made a temple visit this week and bought all this stuff for them at the distribution center. Then later that day when we went by the house, Artur had already read the first couple pages about Joseph Smith and had a question about it, so then we started to explain some things to him when his sister asked another question and then something really neat happened. Artur turned to her, explained the whole story perfectly, detail for detail, and with such ease too, and I almost had a vision of him just serving a mission in the future explaining those exact things for another family. I didn’t have any kind of girly situation where I started crying, but I did get super excited when I saw how much they all were progressing and thinking about him serving a mission in the future.
One other blessing this week has been the rain!! It has been so stinkin hot this past week, but this week it has been raining every day. Sure, its turned a lot of the roads into mudslides, but hey, I got to use my rain coat for the first time in my mission this week. Guess who has the same rain coat...
This morning we were able to take a family to a county office to mark a wedding date. In thirty days I will be marrying a couple so that they can be baptized. I just have to stay here for the next transfer.
Yesterday was also full of spiritual growth because we helped the bishop make some visits to sick people, and this is the first bishop I’ve seen on the mission that serves purely out of love. You can feel the love that he has for the members. You know that he isn’t just doing visits because he feels obliged to as a bishop, but he does it because he wants to. How many times have we accepted a calling and said, "I accepted the calling but I was comfortable where I was". How is that putting your heart into the work? I have been learning to not only go through the actions, but to also do the things I need to, more because I want to. I have been studying a lot on how I can be a greater missionary and have learned a lot. I do not aspire to become a "great" missionary; rather, I aspire to be a "servant". I know that "greatness" implies my performance in relation to others. I know that the critical measure is my conduct in relation to my own abilities and in comparison to my past performance. While I fully understand and do not resent the need for statistics, numbers, and measurements, I am not motivated by the praise or recognition of men. I am motivated by my desire to give myself and all that I am and have, to the Lord and to his work however that may compare with others. I know that Jesus taught his disciples (who at times aspired to the honors of men), that "whosoever will be great among you... shall be servant of all." He said: "for even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:43-44)
I've had so many cool spiritual experiences this week, I feel like Moses might have felt. Somebody put a freakin cloth over my face so that I don’t start to freak the people out around here.
God Speed!
Elder Smidt X
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