Week 15: 洪水！

This was a pretty eventful week. And on Sunday, I got to baptize someone for the first time!!! Swing, our investigator who got baptized, was so excited for her baptism, but she didn't really care who baptized her. She just asked me if I had done it before, and when I said no, then she said I could do it. I was pretty nervous, probably a lot more nervous than she was, especially since I had to say the prayer and stuff in Chinese. But the baptismal program was awesome. President and Sister Clayton (mission president and wife) showed up to attend the baptism, which was super cool! The spirit was there really strong, especially when Swing bore her testimony about how grateful she was for this fresh start. And while I don't remember much about my own baptism, I will always remember how I felt at Swing's baptism. It truly is joyful to help others take those first steps in covenanting with and beginning a fresh start with their Heavenly Father.

 Swing's baptism!!!

 

With President and Sister Clayton

 

  Had to get a baptism selfie with all the missionaries :)

So yeah. In addition to the baptism, water was kind of a theme for this week. On Tuesday, when we showed up at the church to teach ESL (English Second Language), one of the church pipes had broken, and half of the church was covered in about 3 inches of water!! We spent the rest of the day shoveling water in the church into the little drains. And when we came back to our apartment, our sink pipe was broken, and so water was coming out of that too! We also had to jump start our car 4 times this week... I think I'm am finally seeing the effects of cold weather, haha.

 

(Photo credit: Elder Ikeda)

Luckily we got the church cleaned up in time for the Chinese New Year Party!! On Thursday was the Chinese New Year, and our ward had a big celebration on Saturday. It was so much fun! Lots of Chinese food, I got to be in the big dragon dance, and all the missionaries did a skit on Noah's ark (I was the great flood, which ironically is part of meaning of my Chinese surname, 洪).

 

 All the missionaries in the Bayview ward, preparing for our Noah skit!

  

 I was the flood, Elder Ikeda was a Japanese Noah, and...

  

...Elder Womack was a pig (because he was born in the year of the pig).

  

 And these are all the sister missionaries in our ward.

 

       They are all native Chinese speakers originally from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but their English is pretty good :) They are so funny!

So other than that, missionary work has been a bit slow... people get kind of grumpy in the cold I guess. It's kind of hard and discouraging sometimes.

My favorite quote I heard this week - "If life gets too hard to stand, kneel." - Gordon B. Hinckley

我爱你们!

Elder Holt

Hóng Zhǎnglǎo
洪長老

 

Chinese New Year dinner