James's Baptism

Talofa Lava!

 

We spent a lot of time this past week trying to figure things out for James's baptism. We were running around figuring out the program and who was doing what as well as trying to find jumpsuits. No one in the ward or even neighboring wards knew where there might be jumpsuits. I finally contacted stake leadership and it turns out that the stake used to have jumpsuits available but when people consistently stopped returning them, they just turned over responsibility to the individual wards. So I brought that up in Ward Council yesterday which should hopefully help resolve that problem for the ward for future baptisms.

The baptism went well though. Lots of people showed up and Brother Hawkins already has a calling in scouting. He has friends, nourishment from the word of God, and a calling. All set!

 

Moli is still doing well but we weren't able to meet with her this week. She had a lot of family stuff going on, including a funeral of a relative (aunt or uncle - can't remember which). But she should still be getting baptized with Omar next week.

 

So President texted me Thursday and was like Hey! Everything going well with you? I hope so. How about I take you two out to lunch tomorrow - my treat? So... we went out to lunch with President Van Cott! It was actually pretty cool. He's so down to earth. And funny. He's fun to joke around with. Has a good sense of humor.

I played mom for the rest of that afternoon - Elder Langi had to get an MRI done and he wanted me to be the one to go with him so I took him to that appointment.

 

We were in Moreno Valley with the Maile family for dinner Thursday night. Driving through made me think of Jeren.

 

There was also a wedding on Saturday after the baptism that we went to part of. Most of the ward was there and a few nonmembers from Riverside. We spent the inbetween time that we had available trying to see less actives and former investigators. Some have long since moved but we found that several still live at the same address. At one place we went to there were some polynesian youth standing around outside so we talked to them for a little bit - 1 was Tongan and the rest were Samoan. They were polite - said they've talked to missionaries before. We're planning on going back with some of the prospective elders in tow. haha. So that was pretty cool to actually be the one to find Samoan non-members.

 

We taught both gospel principles as well as elders quorum yesterday. Talked about honesty and then about purifying ourselves as priesthood holders. I'm not a huge fan of preparing lessons, but I really don't mind teaching or being in front of people.

 

This is the last week of the transfer so we're hoping to make it a good one. I have no idea what's going to happen with transfers - it really could be anything. We'll see what happens next week.

 

Love you guys! Manuia le aso :)

Elder Nelson Browning