Hermana Mary DeWitt: Roberto's Baptism!!

Roberto got baptized and confirmed this weekend!! We're SO happy for him, oh my goodness! We're also super excited to keep helping him towards the temple and help his family towards exaltation!!

On Thursday, we had an awesome lesson with Manuela, who was a referral from the Left Hand Creek Elders. When we first contacted her, we had given her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read the Introduction, and when we came back on Thursday, she had actually read it! We were SO excited. We talked about the Restoration and invited her to read 3 Nephi 11, and she said she would! She didn't even hesitate!! She's so prepared - we're so excited for her!

We also got another referral on Friday, whose name is Job - we stopped by the address and, long story short, didn't get to talk to Job, but talked to a lot of other guys who live in the same house (Jose, Diego, and Manuel, and Elias), unlocked them out of their own house (not sure how that happened, but they were very grateful that we showed up at the perfect time to unlock the door for them!), gave Diego and Manuel a Book of Mormon, invited them to read the Introduction, and set up a time to go back on Sunday!

When we went back on Sunday, we mostly talked to Manuel (because Diego was giving another guy a haircut), and wow, Manuel had SO many questions, but they were all genuine questions (not bashy at all), so it was great! It was cool to see how familiar the Gospel seemed to him once we explained things, especially about the nature of God - he was like "oh wow, you're right! that makes so much more sense now!" Later, Diego joined us, along with Elias and the guy who was getting a haircut from Diego; they're all going to read 3 Nephi 11, so we're super excited!

For Roberto's baptism on Saturday, it was definitely a stressful day - I wanted everything to go smoothly, and Hermana Young was just trying to remind me to breathe. We had a couple of hiccups along the way, including having to re-do the baptismal prayer because Hermano Sanchez didn't say Roberto's full name. Even so, it was SO cool to see Roberto's smile after he came up out of the water and hugged Hermano Sanchez - it was awesome! And then on Sunday, after he got confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, you could just see the light around him - seeing others feel the Spirit is one of my favorite things ever!!

We also had dinner with our Branch President and his wife on Sunday, which is always so fun! President Riddle spent about 15 whole minutes talking about fishing and showing up pictures of his best catches. He was very sad when Hermana Riddle told him to let us share our message - he was like "...but I didn't get to finish talking about my fishing stories..."

Personal Study excerpt for the week:

Mosiah 25:8,10 - "...when they behled those that had been delivered out of bondage they were filled with exceedingly great joy...And again, when they thought of the immediate goodness of God, and His power in delivering Alma and his brethren out of the hands of the Lamanites and of bondage, they did raise their voices and give thanks to God."

--this is an amazing example of charity - when we find joy in seeing God blessing other people, that's a good indication that we're experiencing charity for those people.

--find joy in other people's blessings!!

Love you all and have an amazing week!!

- Hermana DeWitt