So Natalie was baptized this Saturday it was awesome! This whole week we have been preparing for it. We had taught her all the doctrine, she passed the interview for baptism, we invited everyone in the ward, we scheduled the font, we prepared the program, and we set up a tv for the interlude. Saturday at 7pm there was a baptism for a child of record and Natalie's baptism was at 8pm so we didn't have to fill the font or set up the chairs. Everything we could possibly think was prepared and ready to go......or so we thought.
7:30 rolls around and we show up to make sure everything is in order. The last baptism is still going on and we peer into the font and...well there must have been some kind of mis-communication because the font was completely empty! They had drained the font right after there baptism. The font takes 2 hours to fill and our baptism starts in 30 minutes!!! Elder Phair looked at it...frowned...and said, "this is bad." He looked way overwhelmed and stressed then said, "well I'll be in charge of handing out the programs." So he handed out programs and me and Elder Postel frantically began the process of filling the font. We acted quickly. We immediately started the water as high as it could go. We then went around the church frantically looking for anything that we could fill with water. We had a bunch of garbage cans and a cooler and things. We took them to each bathroom sink and to the custodial closet and began filling them with water. Turns out the only water in the whole building that gets hot water is for the font everything is bitter cold. But we had to fill that font and we needed to do it now. So we carried the water across the church and dumped it in. Natalie was like what's going on. We were just like nothing everything's going to be ok. And it was. Despite the worst possible thing happening the baptism turned out wonderful. A bunch of people showed up and the program started only about 15 minutes late. We continued to fill the font while the first part of the program started and then we went in and were able to watch the baptism. Yes the water was cold and yes the water only went up to their knees but hey Jake baptized her first try. It was great!
We had an awesome lesson with a lady named Laurie. We found about a month ago. It was a night at 8pm which is sometimes a hard time to work because it's dark and everybody gets way mad when you knock on their door because they think it is late. But we went tracting and found a lady who said we could come back. We have been teaching her for a while now and she has had a ton of concerns. This week we had a lesson at the Wardells home they are a member in our ward. She met sister Wardell and loved her. She all the sudden didn't have anymore concerns. We taught her about the temple and then asked her if she had any questions about it. "Yes how do I get to the temple?" We told her she needed to get baptized first. She said well I guess I will do my best to get there. This is a huge step in the right direction. I love members!
Had a good Thanksgiving this week. We had dinner at Elder Phair's great uncle's house. It just so happens that his grandpa's brother is in our ward. Unfortunately he is less active but he invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner and it was cool. We also had another Thanksgiving dinner at Kirsten's on Saturday. She is doing really good. Last week she told us she was going to quit smoking on Monday. So on Monday we gave her a blessing that the temptation would be bearable. She has gone this whole week and only smoked twice and afterwards she felt sick to her stomach. On Saturday for dinner she looked at us and said, "It worked." It was really good to hear. She just needs to come to church one more time and she can get baptized. We are excited.
Well I gotta go. I love you all!!!
Elder Johnson
