Rollercoaster

Week 23: Rollercoaster

Tuesday began relatively normal as we did our usual things; but we had a nice dinner planned with a member.  We were going to go to the restaurant where our investigator A- works.  Then as we pulled into church to connect to Facebook, we got a call from the bishop.  Our rollercoaster of  a week began then.

He informed us that we needed to give one of the ward members a blessing.  Sadly J-, who we arranged a blessing for last week in England, passed away.  His fiancée, A-, has been so grief stricken and was in need of a blessing.  All of the news of J- has been so hard for us to deal with too.  He was such a nice fellow.  As a missionary, I wonder if I did all I could to help him progress closer to Christ.  I just haven’t really come to full grips with this news yet. It has been hard to deal with even as the week went on.

Wednesday was another crazy day- but in a good way.  We found four new potential investigators that day!  It was awesome!  They’re all working on campus as “campus crusaders” who are active student body members and representatives for their own churches on campus.  So, they were very interested in what we had to say and had some really good questions for us.  Although their question could be pretty intimidating, it was super cool to talk to them. 

Also on Wednesday, M- passed his baptismal interview, and C- agreed to be interviewed for baptism.  We have been working with both of these investigators for so long, it is wonderful to reach this point with them.  So cool!

Not much happened Thursday besides our weekly planning session.  But Friday we had Elder Kacher, a General Authority who spoke in General Conference , in town for a tour of the mission.  He talked a lot about using The Book of Mormon as a tool for teaching powerfully.  It was kind of like a “duh” moment; but he had a scripture reference for like…EVERYTHING!  It was insane.  He is really cool. 

Saturday our group had song practice for our fireside on Sunday.  That was fun.  I got to go to Chipotle for a burrito wrapped in a quesadilla along the way.  It was divine.  I did have to be at the church for a long time so Elder Horowitz could get some things done for when he goes home.  I think he is registering for school and stuff.  Luckily, the ASL sisters came by to work on their baptismal programs so I had someone to talk to for a bit.

Sunday was a great day!  M- was baptized—Woohoo!  Everything went according to plan, and it was such a special feeling the whole service.  I loved being there and was so touched to be the one to baptize him. 

Our “Why I Believe” fireside was after the baptism.  Our “Nearer Our God to Thee” song went well.  It is easily the best time we have ever performed it.  I also had the chance to meet Dennis Pitta there.  I would say, Sunday was definitely one of my best days or here.  It has been great to end the week on a spiritual high after the low we have had with J- passing. 

Love,
Elder Sorensen