Well.... Margaret is officially
baptized and confirmed as of yesterday :)
we were so nervous about this
day! Saturday we spent almost the entire time on the phone trying to
decide exactly how hot or cold the water should be and then cleaning and
disinfecting the font and last minute details on the program.... just bizarre random
things I never imagined went into a baptism!
background on Margaret real
quick.... she has diabetes and now gangrene in her foot. she has been
taking the lessons for about 2 years! she has had date after date pass
her by because of her medical concerns.
and now, it happened! and so
perfectly too! we were shocked, honestly.
we had two elders in the font with her, one to dunk and one
to make sure her feet didn't go up. she had to sit on a shower stool, so
we had to fill the font to an exact place. Elder Stapley did the actually
ordinance which was good because he is a strong guy and Margaret needed a
strong guy to get her under that water. everyone held their breath....
because we knew that there would be no second chances because of the stress her
body was under.
but I guess the Lord knew that as well and I swear the water moved so she could be completely immersed.
but I guess the Lord knew that as well and I swear the water moved so she could be completely immersed.
Sunday night was crazy....
we were so exhausted from the
baptism and confirmation and what every else, we just went home and read and
wrote in our journals and took a nap....
sister magness and I both regretted spending that time to
ourselves when we had too many investigators that we could have checked on so
at 5:30 we ran over to the investigators most in our thoughts at that moment
thinking that we would set an appointment to meet with them later and let them
know that we were still thinking about them and we remembered them because we
didn't have time for a lesson.... dinner was 6:00.
when we got to the house, however, there was a cop
car. we both looked at each other like "well, maybe this is a bad
time" but we waited for a few minutes anyway. the cop left
after we said our quick prayer and we just thought he might be a family
friend? so we went to knock on the door anyway.
quick back ground on these
guys: they were a referral from someone anonymous and we have taught them
two lessons. Gary is seriously orthodox catholic and likes controversy,
he scared us, to be honest and he drank during both lessons. Cherietta is
his live in girl friend and she was super open to anything. Cherietta's
son, Waseen is about 25 and lives with them and he is also very open.
Cherrietta answered and her face
just burst into a smile and she beamed at us and said,
"you missed all the action!"
we sat down with her and her son Waseen and they told us how
they had just sent Gary off to jail.
Wait, what?
yup. Gary was a bigger drunk then we thought
originally and he crossed a line with Cherrietta and tried to punch
Waseen. well, that's a horrible thing, but also hilarious because Waseen
is a body builder type and super buff and Gary is a skinny older man.
Cherrietta and Waseen were both shaking and they just
started to talk and talk and talk about all that happened within the past 2
hours.
as they calmed down they kept expressing thanks and
"this amazing calm" that Sister Magness and I brought to their
house. the conversation turned seamlessly and naturally toward Christ and
they asked us questions and we answered.
Tears by the end of the lesson. everyone in
tears.
they are moving....
they are moving to Tulsa because the house here is Gary's
and they do not want to be around when he comes back.
more tears as we exchanged numbers and we promised that the
next time we were in Tulsa (in a week or two at the most) we would come
have lunch and bring along the YSA elders for Waseen. they were so
excited about us and our offer! they are both shy and just want friends.
they could feel our love for them and they recognized it easily as Gods love
for them. they knew we were impressed to visit them that day because God
was aware of them.
the scary thing is.... what if we
hadn't visited them? what if we had just went to dinner.... we didn't
really eat yesterday because we spent two hours with Cherrietta and
Waseen.
What if.... it's a scary thing!
funny thing though.... they are moving into the same ward as
president and sister Shumway..... LOL :) these people are just meant to
be members of this church!
On a totally different note:
I found a place that serves Gluten free sandwiches!
