January 18, 2010

MOM and DAD,
We had a sweet baptism on Saturday. Our ward Mission Leader was out of town so we really scrambled to get everything done in time, but we managed and everything went smoothly. I think that I have told you most of the story in bits and pieces within the last few weeks concerning J and his wife K but I may have left some things out. K had been less-active for some time due to a rough previous marriage to a non-member. Sadly it ended in a divorce. K met J at work (they are both accountants). After dating for some time J was introduced to the church by K's dad. He gave him a couple of books - Our heritage, True to the Faith, a Gospel Principles manual, and the movie Legacy. J was the one that wanted the missionaries to come over and learn more about the church. (K told us that she even tried to talk him out of it, but he was persistent.) So by the time we started to teach him he already had a testimony. Then as you know while teaching J and committing him to baptism, K said that she wasn't sure about the whole thing. She said that she didn't know if she had a testimony and that it was right for their family (they got married last Saturday). So our focus turned to her. After working on that for a couple of weeks she was in full support of J and the baptism. J has been a stud from the beginning. He's had a ton of faith through it all. So at the baptism while J and Elder Curtis were changing, we had a small testimony meeting. It started off with two of K's brothers. By that time J and Elder Curtis were back. Then by surprise, K was invited to come up and bear her testimony. Now I have to mention that K is kind of quiet so to hear her speak was sweet. She got up to the pulpit and said a few words about how proud she is of J. She then started to talk about how persistent we had been through out all of this even though she, at times, did not want to meet with us. At the end of her testimony she said that she was looking forward to being sealed in the temple and then said "Thank you Elders". She got a little emotional about it (I did too, I'm a bawl baby when it comes to things like that) but it was awesome to see a change of heart in a person like that. From going to inactivity, to a full-on reconversion, to go to the temple. It was great for the both of them.
I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale