Two more people just received a saving ordinance on Saturday! Birdy and Amelie's baptisms went so well!!!!! It was such a sweet experience for everyone to see. They were so happy and there was so much light in their eyes. For them to do this together as husband and wife makes it that much more special for their family. They can now as equal companions work together and establish their home where the Holy Spirit can be. They were absolutely glowing after they received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. The Binghamton ward is so lucky to have such sweet new members join their family.
Preparing for this baptism was pretty insane. I was sick most of the day, and the baptisimal font took 3 hours to fill. Luckily we can't leave the church while it is filling so we were able to stay and chill for those 3 hours... Sort of... We were also fanning out the whole building because a companion of mine burnt some popcorn. It was so smelly! It's gone now though, don't worry :)
Paul gave us quite a scare this week! His baptism was scheduled for May 29th. He had a drink the other day, and said that he needed to drop his date and probably everything else. We assumed that maybe he just felt ashamed for drinking and needing to change his date. I can understand how frustrating that would be, and how bad he must have felt. So we handled it with love and explained that it is okay to make mistakes. He will need to change his date but that was alright. He wouldn't want to get baptized with that kind of guilt hanging over him, that's why we go a whole month of following the word of wisdom before baptism. He might still be a little shaken up, but he has a new date now for July. It was truly a miracle to give him a new date. Normally he would have ended it all, but we know that he has a testimony. Even if it is the faith of a mustard seed, it is still there. And if that is all you have, you can still move mountains!
Dad, your email this week was powerful! And like you said, "don't take no for an answer." We all sort of did that this week. We went over to Danielle's home for a lesson to read from the Book of Mormon, and her friend was there. We never met her before, but she has seen missionaries in the past. We invited her to read with us and she gladly accepted. Out of all the places, we read Mosiah 18. That chapter is all about baptism. We had such a good conversation about how Alma was teaching his people and then baptized over 400 people. If that many people at once were baptized then something Alma was teaching them was good. Danielle's friend liked everything we had shared, and we invited her to be baptized. She said that she goes to church, but hasn't ever been baptized before. She was a little hesitant, but then Danielle jumped in as well and was able to show by example everything that she has been blessed with since learning with us. She eventually committed to sit in on the discussions. I don't know what will come about of it in the future, but I do know that the spirit was very strong that day.
Speaking of the spirit, we had an amazing time yesterday while we were out tracting. Sunday's usually don't have very many appointments set, so we spend lots of time talking to people. We started on a street near our house, and met a few people who weren't interested. It was hot, and we had a ways to walk back to our car. We found a cute house that seemed nice to go knock on their door, and a sweet woman answers and says "Come on in! Let me get you some water!" She ended up being a member but we had no idea she lived there because she is from a different ward. Her husband is in their bishopric. It was a nice visit, and the Lord blessed us with a kind family to offer us water on a hot day.
After that, we drove a long ways away to look for a former investigator and met some interesting people. The first man we came to came out and said that we parked on his lawn. Then he didn't want us to leave because he wanted to know what we were all about. As we continued talking, we realized that he was very anti towards the church. He wanted to invite us inside to "chat" but we knew that that would just be putting him on his thrown to bash. So we said no thanks and continued to bare testimony outside. He kept wanting to share his "opinion" about Joseph Smith and some other things and every time he would, he would get distracted by something and lose his thought. Just goes to show he was not preaching by the spirit! After him, we walked all the way down to the end of the road and met a very sweet woman. She had no interest in taking lessons or anything, but she did want to take a walk with us. So we walked for about 45 minutes just talking about why a few 20 year old girls were so far away from home to walk up and down the streets of sketchy places. Why wouldn't we, with the message that we have to share with the world!? She really came to like us and gave us some fresh eggs to take home from her chickens. The spirit was so strong with us yesterday!!! The church is true!! By the way, did you know that I live right across the street from the Susquehanna River?
Love, Sister Keller
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