November 10, 2014

Hey Y'all!

This week was pretty dang awesome! But isn't everyone's birthday week awesome? Well at least I hope so. We were able to set 2 baptism dates this week and they were both miracles! So lets get started. Our first date that we set was with a 9 year old. His parents texted us last Sunday and asked if we could get started on teaching the lessons with him because he is ready to be baptized. I have to say I can't recall very many experiences where people have texted us asking for them or their kid to be baptized. It was pretty sweet. So we went over on Monday nightand we taught him the Restoration. He's a pretty smart kid. He has been going to church for awhile now because his family is active, but they didn't think he was ready to be baptized. So he has been learning this stuff at church from his teachers. We just had to explain like little stuff was. Like the Priesthood and the Book of Mormon. But after we taught him, we got a text from his parents that night saying that he had already read 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. So we were really excited that he is already reading and excited to get baptized. He will be baptized on Dec 6th. We are really excited!

Our next baptism date was also a referral from a member. She is an older lady in her 60's and she lives with a member, who is her cousin. The member is less active. Man it's super hard not to use names and have it all make sense by the way. Haha! So the members Sister who also lives in the ward referred us to them to hopefully re-activate and also baptize their cousin. She is so awesome too. She expressed to us that night that she wants to get baptized. She said that she has heard all about the church from her family surrounding her and that she had gone to a couple activities and has felt welcome everytime. So we taught the Restoration with her and she loved it! We were also able to give her a DVD about the restoration. So she said that she would watch it. But we set a date with her from December 13th. And the really cool thing is that she said that she wants to quit smoking before she gets baptized. We hadn't even taught the commandments yet and she already wants to start changing. Man she is awesome! We are excited to go over again this week and teach her again. However, she wasn't at church, but the member, her cousin, was at church today and is really excited to start coming back to church. 

So those are the 2 dates that we set this week, but there is more that happened. We were also able to come in contact with another part member family.This Sister hasn't been to church in awhile and has befriended another member in the ward. They got in contact with each other from school, their daughters are the same age. On Saturday the members invited her over to dinner because they had signed up to feed us. So we had a nice birthday celebration because the family that signed up for dinner was also celebrating a birthday as well. So after we had dinner and ate cake we taught the Less Actives daughter, who is 9. She also wants to get baptized. We were going to set a date with her as well, but she wants her uncle to come baptize her and he lives in San Diego. So they said that they are going to talk with him this week and see if there is a good weekend for him to come fly out for a weekend and baptize her. We are meeting with them this weekend and we are hoping to get another date this week. We are super excited because this area is starting to really take off. It was also great for me because I haven't had anyone at church or have a baptism date set since March of this year. A solid date that is. Elder Reas hasn't had a baptism yet so we are hoping to get him his first baptism in this area also. 

So I did get my birthday packages this week and thank you for sending everything to me. :) I really appreciate it a lot! I had a really good birthday waking up to back pain. Haha! I feel old already. However, back pain is not bad, unlike waking up to heart burn on your 40th birthday (Dad). ;) Haha! Thanks for the birthday wishes as well. Love all y'all and have a fantastic week! Oh also, we got transfer calls this morning and I'm going to be staying in Burleson for 5 more weeks. We are having a short transfer this time because the transfer date would've fallen on Christmas Eve and no one would've driven us up to Hurst on that day. So this transfer will end on Dec. 17th and the following transfer should be a 7 week transfer. But I will let you know when I know. Love y'all! 

Love,

Elder O'Brien