I hope that my water reference told everyone what has happened this weekend! Roque Ismael Ramirez Fleitas was baptized on July 11th, 2015 and confirmed on July 12th, 2015! He's so happy and so changed. This really has been one of the most powerful baptisms I've every had. He's not only left behind so much, and he's not merely been baptized in order to join this Church, but really in his heart he was baptized to change his path and to make the Restored Gospel his entire life, and that's the greatest blessing to have seen. He has direction and clarity and we've helped him to know the reason of his existence here and what he must do to fulfill it. I'm so grateful to God that He granted me the chance to be there and help this, His son, come unto Christ.
There will be pictures. :)
But the baptismal service went super well! We have a new Ward Mission Leader, who had a tough time directing the service last time, so we created a guide and practiced with him to prep him, and he did so well! We got there early and Elder DuFort cleaned out the font super well (I more or less helped....) and then made some seriously American brownies. I kid you not, those brownies were just like my great aunt Betty Crocker used to make them, only these were from scratch. It was delicious.
So, before the baptism, our recent convert, Diego Montiel, gave a short talk on baptism. The baptism was done by Ismael's older brother, Iván, and after the baptism, the other Elders in the Ward shared about the purpose of baptism and the story of Adam's baptism in the Pearl of Great Price. After that, Elder DuFort and I sang an acapella duet of "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go," which turned out pretty well. A lot of testimonies and talks followed, and Ismael himself bore testimony. His family was all there, except for his father. And then everyone loved the brownies at the end. It seriously interested a lot of his relatives, and so we're trying to make some follow-up visits to see if we can't find an investigator amongst them.
It's also helping the Ward get more excited and energized about the work, the fact that there've been back-to-back baptisms these past two weeks. There've actually been a lot of things going on:
Diego Montiel, our Recent Convert, was a witness in the baptism and blessed the Sacrament just this last Sunday for the first time. Along with that, they're really excited, now that Diego is using the Priesthood, to plan out their boy, Matías', baptism. That'll be really good for them.
Yesterday, we visited Ismael to give him a big congrats and teach him his first lesson as Recent Convert, and then he came out with us to work for an hour preaching the Gospel! He loved it.
Elder Walters had a baptism the week before of a Priesthood-aged man also.
They have a couple of baptisms lined up for this weekend.
All of these things are like rocks falling in the water. They create ripples that in return interact with the other things sitting in the pool. All of this activity is having an effect on the members, helping them wake up. It's also helping me feel the ripples bounce off and return, making me realize the good that we're doing. I'm also working to help build up my companion, see the good that he does and strengthen him in all that I can, and that too creates a ripple effect. I guess all of the good that we do towards other people makes ripples, because even the efforts that seem wasted often disturb something else in the pool, and our good keeps giving in ways that we don't realize. We're trying to do all we can to keep our pool moving and keep the Lord's work active. All of you have your own "pools" your spheres of influence that the Lord has trusted you with. I invite you all to disturb the waters: make ripples by helping and building up those around you. When you do good, don't seek glory, but help others see the good that you're producing. Or better yet, find ways to help them benefit from the good that you do to others. It leads to brighter circumstances and more powerful hope.
Those are the most important developments this week! Enjoy the pictures!
I love you all.
With great sincerity,
Elder Harris
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