we've had a baptism shout hooray

Minnie was just baptized on Saturday! Shout hooray! I can just remember the first time me and Elder Mullenax knocked on her door. She was super skeptical and we couldn't really tell if she was interested. Minnie always has this mischievous look to her. But we went back time and time again but the thing that really turned it all around is when we brought Simon with us to an appointment. Simon is the husband of Devon (my first baptism). He was totally awesome to her and they became good friends. Then she became friends with an older single sister in the ward and that was great because Minnie is an older single sister too. The whole time we were teaching her we thought she was about 50 to 60 years old. But it turns out she's 69. Anyways the thing that made the difference was when she saw the kindness of the ward members. That got her really interested in who this Joseph Smith guy was. So we watched Prophet of the Restoration with her. And we set a date for September 11th for her to be baptized. But then we invited her to come to Isaac's baptism and once she saw what it was like she decided to move her date forward a couple of weeks. Yay! It was a really awesome baptism, very spiritual. Once she stepped into the water she just laughed her mischievous laugh. Heh, heh, heh. Oh I will never forget that.

We had a pretty amazing miracle right after the baptism too. So while we were trying to get ready for the whole baptism we received a call which we weren't able to answer at that time. He left us a message which said he wanted for us to come over and teach him. The only problem is that he didn't leave his name or number so we had no way of knowing who this guy was or how to contact him. We were really bummed about that but since there was nothing we could do, we just continued on with our plans. After the baptism we went over to this apartment complex. We talked to a bunch of people that we had previously met. But then all of the sudden somebody's name popped into my mind. It was the name of a former investigator who lived in those same apartments. I would always remember to see this person after we had left the apartments so I was super happy that I remembered this time. We went over to her door and then at the same time a guy nearby left his apartment. So we talked to him and it turns out he was the same guy who had called us that very same day. We talked to him and set up a return appointment. Ironically his name is Clint too. Right after that we knocked on the former investigator's door and she had moved a few months ago. Wow! The Lord literally put us in that spot at that precise time. I just look at that experience and I come to know even more that the Lord is so very powerful.

This week Shari asked us if we had any little girl clothes for her 4 year old daughter. At first I was like um...I don't but maybe the ward does. We asked the Ward council and they said that there was a lady in the ward that had a calling to gather clothes for people in need. So we asked her if she might be able to help. Long story short she gave us a huge bag of clothes. We brought them over to Shari's and she was thrilled. We might be setting a date for baptism soon...

Well we switched up a few of our baptism dates with investigators. Elnora's is on September 3rd and Tony and his wife Amber is also on the 3rd. And Olivia's is on Sept 10th.

My time here in Newport may or may not be drawing to a close I might only have three weeks left. I will be very very sad when that day comes because I love these people! I love them! I love the ocean! I love the weather! Alyse got to see the beauty and awesomeness of Newport so just ask her. I will be very sad to leave it.

But on the brighter side we found out that L. Tom Perry will be coming to our mission on the  20th so we all get to come listen to him. Woot! That will be a very enlightening experience. Anyways I think that just about sums up our week. Thanks guys!

Love Elder Johnson