Hey Momma!
How cool that Reid, David and Bonnie all got to speak in sacrament meeting together! I'm sure it was a great meeting. As for the thought on faith, the little things really do matter. Remember that it is a commandment to always have a prayer in your heart, which to me means always have your thoughts directed towards him in every moment. You can even pray to have the strength to get up in the morning and go to the gym! It seems silly, but I'm realized during this last year that Heavenly Father really wants to help us in EVERY aspects of our lives if it means that we are happier, stronger, and better people. Kind of amazing, right?
To give an example, this week was kind of crazy. Remember Claudio, who skipped out on his confirmation a couple weeks ago? Well, this weekend was his "take 2", so Hna Palombo and I were passing by every single day to make sure he would be ready. To be honest, we weren't teaching like we should have been. It was more like just going and forcing him to read scriptures about the importance of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost until he got it through his head that he HAD to come do this. On top of that, his mom talks A LOT, and it can make it a little difficult to focus everyone and feel the spirit. Oh man, mom. We prayed like crazy all week. We even fasted. TWICE.... although one of them was a whole zone fast.
So on Saturday, we did the baptismal interview with the district leader so that he could be baptised Sunday morning before church and confirmed right after, leaving absolutely no time to go off and do something.... silly. And he passed! So we went through the day, still praying that he would actually come to the church in the morning. At about 7:30 that night, Hna Palombo and I were walking past our apartment when my comp stopped, looked at me, and said, "We forgot to fill the font." HOLY CRUD! How could we forget to fill the fetching baptismal font! It takes 3-4 HOURS to do it, and the baptism was planned for 7:30 the next morning! And since the font is outside, we still had to run over and clean it out!!! So we ran into the apartment, threw on some pants, and started looking for our copy of the keys to the chapel.... which were nowhere to be found. We had forgotten them in the church during Claudio's last baptism, and we never noticed because we almost never use them! So we called the bishop, who didn't answer. We called his wife, who wasn't home. She DID, however, give us permission to just walk into the house and get their copy of the keys. We jogged over, got the keys, and jogged over to the chapel, getting there at about 8pm. We then starting trying every single one of the 20 keys on the keyring to open the door, but NONE of them worked! We ended up calling the Elders, and they ran over to open up the building for us. We cleaned everything out, but the elders kindly pointed out that we would have to get up at 4 in the morning to come fill up the font in time. In their words, "Sucks for you guys! Isn't being a missionary GREAT?" By the time we finished cleaning, we literally had to RUN to drop off the keys at the bishop's and get back to the apt before curfew.
At 3 am, I was woken up by a clap of thunder and the sound of rain. Oh. My. Crud. The alarm went off an our later, we threw on our boots, and started out in a raging thunderstorm at 4:15am. THE STREETS WERE RIVERS, and I seriously thought we were going to get struck by lightning, but at the same time, my comp and I were completely calm. I starting think about all this trouble we were going through for a baptism that we weren't even sure was going to happen. I thought about Claudio, and the Spirit came to my mind, reminding me that he is my brother. We had failed to be motivated by love for him during the week, and were fueled only by a sense of righteous duty. The Spirit was lacking in the lessons. I personally needed to repent and have faith in Claudio and that the Spirit would testify to him and get him to where he needed to be. Honestly, it was a very humbling moment for me.
We got to the church, turned on the water, and trudged back home. We woke up again at 6:30 with the sun shining and hardly a cloud in the sky, got dressed, and got to the church at 7:15.... when we saw that the drain for the baptismal font had been open the whole time, and the font was EMPTY. All of that work for NOTHING!!!! But, I think at that moment I realized that everything was out of our hands, and we just had to be patient. Happily, we just closed the drain, waited until the font was filled half-way, and had the baptism during Sunday School. He had to sit on his butt and lay back to get under the water, but it went perfectly, and he was conferred the gift of the Holy Ghost 30 minutes later! IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! Claudio is FINALLY a member of the church!!!
We go through a lot to make baptisms happen, but this time was just a little insane. I did, however, learn a lot. God listens to our prayers. He helps us every step of the way, and when we start to forget what's important, he gently reminds us of his love for us and for others through the Spirit. I will say, though, I am so glad it's Monday and I can take a nap!!!
I love you guys!!! Stay safe!
Love,
Hermana Jeppesen
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