We had such a great week! It was so awesome to see C. get baptized!! :) We visited her a bunch this last week and she just did so great all week! It was super funny cause C. had a nose ring, and we had been teaching her other things that she wanted to learn about, so we didn't even remember to talk about the counsel given to us by a Prophet and apostles that our bodies are a temple, that men should refrain from piercings and that women should only have one set in their ears. So we brought that out the morning of her baptism and it was so funny and cool to see her response! She was just like, "You guys!!! Ahh... You guysss!! I just had that put in a few months ago and I like it and it cost money! Ahh... ok fine, I'll go take it out. You guys!!!" We tried to apologize for not telling her sooner and tried to explain more but she was like, "Nope, if a prophet said it then I agree, but you guys!!!!" It was super awesome to see how strong her testimony is and how much she's learned!
So we made invitations to her baptism and handed out between 70-80 of them!! It was cool to get to talk to so many people! It ended up that no one we gave invitations to came, but we did find 8 new investigators this week, which was sweet! :) One of them was a man named A. who is from Albania! He had talked with missionaries a few years ago and we found him and he is a super cool and nice man!! :)
C.'s baptism was super sweet, like the whole ward came and so did most of our district so that was really cool! We had some good talks, C. was baptised, then we had a special musical number by the youth and children, and the testimonies of S. S. and M. F. (recent converts from our ward and Portsmouth.) It was such a cool service and everyone loved it! C. had such a great time and the spirit was there so strongly! :)
Today was actually C.'s birthday so Elder M. and I brought her magic cookie bars and a cool mirror thing given to us by J. to give to someone! :) We sang happy birthday and had a fun little time! This week should be pretty sweet with C. too, we plan to do family history!
So one last cool thing is that Elder M. and I have been so blessed by children! First of all there is E., who is the coolest 9 year old in New England! Then she introduced us to A. who is 10 and is E.'s best friend, and we are teaching their family now! Then we have this cool family of investigators who are from Jamaica, and when we visited them this week their 6 year old daughter talked to us for a long time, and she was the one who started asking when we were going to come back again, and when we picked a day and time she was like "yay!" :) THEN, the other day when we were inviting people to C.'s baptism we were in Brentwood, a more residential part of our area and we met a super cool 10 or 11 year old girl named E.! She was sitting on a long board while her dog pulled her! ;) We said hi then she started talking to us, then one thing lead to another and she started leading us around the neighborhood to help us find the people we were looking for! It was so nice and cool! Then she said we should go invite her dad so we went to her house and talked with her dad, who wasn't the nicest at first. It was pretty funny actually! So we walked up to the house and E. knocked on the garage side door and her dad opened it. He said hi and E. said we were Elder Branch and Elder M. and we were inviting people to a baptism! Her dad said, "Oh, church guys, have fun walking." Haha, ya, that was kinda harsh, but then Elder M. was like, "Oh, can I actually use your bathroom?" The dad said sure and we all went in. While Elder M. was in the bathroom I talked with the dad and he started to lighten up. He was actually a pretty cool dude! Then we gave him a invitation to the baptism and E. was like, "Dad, can we go!?" He said that sadly they were busy. Then as we were saying bye the dad said, "If you are in Brentwood and ever need a bathroom or drink feel free to stop by!" That was super nice and then we asked if we could come by in a few days and share an Easter message with them. The dad was like, "Ya, if you're in the area and were around." And then E. said, "You are welcome ANY time!" and she shot her dad a 'gotcha' look and it was way funny! ;) Kids are the best, never doubt what good anyone can do!!!
Well I sure love you all and hope life is going well! :) Thanks for the prayers and know that many of you are in my prayers specifically and all of you are generally! Get pumped for General Conference, and invite a friend to watch it with you! It is such a blessing to have an actual living Prophet of God on the Earth and that is definitely something you should share! Don't be afraid, "Just do it!"
Oh, one last funny story, I decided to have some fun with missionary work today and so when Elder M. and I went to McDonalds drive-thru today for breakfast (breakfast of champions right there!) I gave the person who charged us, and also the person who gave us the food each a sweet new Easter pass-along card with our names and number! ;) It was pretty funny to give them something, but they both said thanks and took them, so mission accomplished! Who knows, maybe if I keep doing that it will make a difference for someone someday!? HAHA!
LOVVVVVVVVVVE,
Elder Casador Rama :)
Cassie's Baptism!
Look at all the palindromes
Elder Erbe, my first District Leader
