2/10/20 Cheryl's Baptism!

Happy Monday!

Our friend Cheryl was baptized this Saturday and it was such a privilege to put it all together and be there to support her. 

For any of you who have put together a baptism before, you'll know what a crazy journey it can be. I've always heard that the week before a baptism everything starts going wrong because Satan is going to do his very best to stop someone from taking that step closer to Christ. For example, some sisters we know told us that they were putting together a baptism one time and got a flat tire on the way to the church that took them two hours to get fixed. However, this last week everything was going oddly well... and then everything hit the night before...

So, to list a few last minute things that went wrong:

-The only jumpsuits that our stake had were youth sizes and XXL sizes. Eventually we found a medium and a small that had been kinda hidden away, so we used them for Bishop (who did the baptism) and Cheryl . Later someone informed us that those ones were in fact the youth sized jumpsuits we had found. Either that person was wrong about the sizes, or it was a miracle that the jumpsuits fit them.

-We had a bunch of last minute program changes the night before so we had to reprint the program that we'd made sure to get out of the way almost a week prior.

-The morning of we got a voicemail from our ward mission leader that said "I don't know if you've looked outside, but it's supposed to keep snowing until 5 tonight. I just wanted to call and see what your thoughts are on the baptism and if we should push it back or not." So far it hasn't snowed most of the winter, but that morning it decided to all come down at once. But we found a last minute ride to get Cheryl to the church in the bad weather.

-We had no keys to the family history center or library, so we had to take an hour out of our morning to travel over to the Elders and get their keys

-When trying to reprint the program, the printer ran out of ink

-The TV that we needed for a small presentation wouldn't work

-The nursery, which is where the font is (and which is never used outside of Sundays) was a WRECK when we walked in

-And, I now have a 2/2 streak for cold font water during baptisms!

Basically, if something could go wrong that morning, it probably did. But oh, was it all so worth it!

We made a last minute decision the night before to ask Cheryl's mom, Gorgia, if she wanted to be one of the witnesses for Cheryl's baptism. She excitedly said yes and worked really hard to memorized the baptism prayer so she could make sure it was said correctly at the baptism. Not only was it a wonderful opportunity to talk about the prayer and priesthood power as we discussed what it means to be "commissioned of Jesus Christ", but it was also so wonderful to go up with Georgia as a witness, knowing that she and Cheryl both understood the power that those words and that priesthood power contained. There's something so special about the spirit that's present at convert baptisms. Cheryl has been such a light to those around her as she's come closer to Christ, and I've been so lucky to get to know her and Georgia because they've both taught me so many things and strengthened my gratitude for the knowledge of the gospel that I've been able to have my entire life.

One last crazy thing about the baptism. Immediately after the baptism ended I started getting a bad headache, and about an hour after the baptism was over as we were heading out I very suddenly fell ill and had to cancel the rest of our day to stay in bed. But I was right back at it the next morning so we could see Cheryl at church. It was quote the tender mercy that I was okay all through the baptism!

This week someone asked me something along the lines of what the best thing I've learned on my mission has been. After pondering on it for a bit I came to the conclusion that I've learned A LOT of things on my mission thus far. But the best thing about my mission has nothing to do with WHAT I've learned, but that I've learned HOW to learn. I grew up learning the importance of becoming more like Christ and learning from the scriptures. However, there's a big difference between knowing that you need to learn and grow, and knowing how and where to even start. If I didn't learn a single new thing for the rest of my mission, I would still go home satisfied because I've learned how to study the scriptures and learn from them, and I how to work on developing qualities that can make me more Christlike. (Though, if I didn't learn another new thing for the next 9 months that probably means I forgot all that I've learned regarding the subject. But we're not factoring in that part)

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Here are some pictures from the baptism and a picture of Christ that I love.

Love,

Sister Bliss