Sad to hear that Grandma Johnson died. but she should be doing fine right now. I found a really cool talk about the Spirit World and it honestly sounds like a beautiful place. No worries there then.
Sad to hear you were sick all week mom. I've always been pretty sick lately. Had to stay in the past few days due to huge upset stomachs and lots of bathroom.
As for the baptism...... yeah. Didn't really work out. Long story short, some members called us an hour before the baptism to say that A had smoked (and we knew they were telling the truth because there were 3 witnesses and she smoked inside one of their homes). So we called the members cancelling the baptism. We were going to see A in 20 minutes anyway, so we thought to talk to her face to face. She came with some of her friends. Us and the Branch President took her aside really quick and asked if she smoked. She said no at first and that God wanted her to get baptized. But then we said some members said she smoked inside their home. She fought back a little, admitted to smoking about 5 cigerettes a day, drinking wine everyday, and doing 2 canes (we still don't want to know what those are). So we talked to her about how she needed to be following all the commandments and how it was inappropriate of her to lie to us. She kept claiming revelation that God was telling her to get baptized anyway. We explained worthiness and what God has told us through His authorized servants about baptism. She got mad at that and started to say that prophets were dumb and not needed anymore, that they were good back then when people didn't listen to God but that they are unnecessary now. We told her sorry but she couldn't be baptized. She then told us she would get baptized herself whether or not we were there. We didn't know what to do. So Cleveland, I, and President Ioanna just left the room, explained things to her friends (who were against the baptism anyway since they say her doing these things), and eventually A came around to it. However, the next day she didn't come to Church, called and said she was mad with us and didn't want to see us anymore. Then yesterday she called and said we were right and how she wanted to try again.
Needless to say, I am exhausted and never thought I would have such scary experiences like this on the mission. But I've grown a lot from it and hope that I can take the things I have learned and apply them in my life from now on.
Other than that, I am studying the scriptures a lot more. Loving that. The more and more I think about it, the more and more theology sounds pretty sweet (especially ancient scripture). But again, I'll just wait till I get home to see what I want to do.
Hope everything else is going well. Just send me Tori's essay over email and I'll print it out. I have another package to send out to you all with some things that I can't take with me during transfers. I have money to send that with so don't worry about it. Transfers are next week so we will see if I spend another 6 weeks here or move on to greater things. In many ways I want to try a big city with a big ward since I have only gotten to do small cities (on the bright side of that though, I have seen exactly how the leadership side of the church works. I hope that doesn't mean I get too big of a calling when I go home).
Well, onward to another week. Should be good. Are you all ready for summer?
Anziano Rockwood
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