Week 56: Brylend's baptism!!!

December 04, 2023

Week 56: Brylend's baptism!!!

Hey y'all!

Another transfer is coming to a close and, once again, it totally snuck up on me! I don't have my transfer news yet because we get it on Tuesdays now (thanks MTC departures!) I'll just have to fill y'all in next week again. Admittedly, I do hope to stay here for one more transfer, but I'll serve wherever the Lord needs me! I'm excited. Anyways, I'll get on with the week :)

To kick off the week, we had an awesome zone conference with a member of the 70, Elder Schmutz! He talked extensively on the Atonement and repentance as well as the importance and power of extending invitations to those we teach. It was so good! It was also a 6 hour zone conference...but it was still so good! Obviously he didn't talk the whole time and he actually had to leave half way through at lunch break, but it was still definitely the longest zone conference I've been to haha

Elder Schmutz is awesome and I would really recommend y'all listen to his most recent conference talk. It's really good.

Recently (in part because we were invited to by Elder Schmutz) we have been putting in am extra effort to REALLY talk to everyone. It's pretty easy to get into the frame of mind that you can only find people as a missionary when you're tracting or have specifically set aside time to find people to teach. Yeah, that's not really the case though. We see people everywhere! The store, the park, the gas station, parking lots, etc. It's super easy to just walk past someone and think "oh, they look like they're busy or in a rush. I won't bother them." But honestly, the times that I've thought that and talked to them anyways have often been some of the best interactions I've had with people! It's been a really good experience so far and it's helped me a lot with getting more comfortable striking up conversations and guiding them to be Gospel centered. (We also met this guy with the COOLEST Corvette Stingray doing this, so there's a reward for our efforts.)

We had a few good lessons this week! One we had with Brylend a couple days before his baptism just emphasizing the significance of it and making sure he was ready (spoilers: he was!) We had the member who was baptizing him join that lesson, and it was super spirit filled.

We also had a lesson with our friend Daniel! There are SO many Daniels in this area. There's already like three in the ward and all three companionships are teaching a Daniel as well. It gets a little confusing sometimes. Anyways, we had one of the Daniel's join our lesson with Daniel and it was super super good. We were planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation, but it got derailed in the best ways and we ended up talking a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the importance of church and the Sacrament. Again, super spirit filled and a great lesson. It must have been for him too, because on Sunday not only did Daniel come, but he brought his brother David to church too! His brother was actually baptized as a child but hasn't been to church in...a very long time. Unfortunately he is moving to Michigan this week so we wont get to see him again, but it was really cool that Daniel brought him. It was sweet seeing them both participate in Sunday school too!

We attended a wedding reception on Friday for two now former members of the YSA named Joseph and Bree! (Yes, we were invited.) It was sweet seeing them both so happy. We didn't stick around for the whole thing obviously, but it was a really nice night.

On Friday and Saturday there was a performance of the Messiah put on at the church by both members and non members, and we got to help by being ushers on Saturday. It was obviously just local volunteers, but it was still an impressive performance! It wasn't necessarily fun standing in the hallway for three hours, but al least we got to listen to it over the speakers ha.

Yesterday was Brylend's baptism! This week was easily the best attended baptism I've ever been to. There were over 70 people there and we barely had enough space for everyone. Would have been smart to have just met in the chapel! The baptism went great and it was really awesome seeing everyone show up to support him. He's made a lot of friends!

That night we had a delicious brisket dinner with Mama and Pops since it's Elder Pieroni's last week on the mission. It's been really fun getting to work with him the last two transfers, and we're really going to miss him! Service missionaries are awesome.

I'll wrap it up here since this one is getting a little long, but I love you all! Have a fantastic week and remember who you are. We'll see where I end up next week!

During fast and testimony meeting yesterday, our bishop bore his testimony and something he said prompted me to write a short poem. It's not the best, but I think the message is good ha.

Without resistance from the air, an airplane cannot fly.

Without resistance from the water, a sailboat cannot float.

Let the Lord be your captain as you go throughout your life,

And never will you sink or fall; you'll never be alone.

Love,

Elder DeWitt