12-5-11

Hey Madre:

As far as the flight home I will be home at 4:18 as I think you know and if you guys want to go out to eat, that's fine with me! I'm not too picky. Have you spoken to the Stake President about when and where I will be released? I guess afterwords we'll just go to the house and I'll cruise around for a bit haha. I don't really know what else to do haha. We can sit around and read the scriptures or something hahaha. Or go to the movies, I'd like to see Puss 'n Boots, I've heard it's great. But, I don't know if I'll be able to sit still for that long; maybe we'll save that for Saturday.

I finished my home-coming talk already! I think you'll like it. Also, some of my favorite cake would be great when I get home -- with the hershy's on top. I have missed that stuff for a while now.

I'm excited to see your new Jeep! It sounds really nice. What's up with all these people getting engaged? Weird! It's crazy to see how many people have gotten engaged as I've been out. We'll see what happens. I feel like a prophet because of the Alexa business hahaha. I called that one!

This week was so stressful, as are most baptismal days but I'm going to start the letter on a different note first.

Last night we visited the Sanchez family and the Cruz family and Lopez family in derby as an early farewell to them. They are a few of the families that I worked with in Bridgeport, so it was really fun to see them again and get to visit a little and eat some great Mexican food! It was amazing!

The English speaking elders had a great week as well, they baptized their investigator, Kristin Zaichkin. She bore a great testimony about the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of it and the overall service was a great success. The Spirit was very strong and surrounded us abundantly. She is one of the more prepared investigators and I'm excited for her to grow in the church and continue learning.

I should have just brought my journal to the library, because I've been kicking butt at keeping my journal. I haven't missed a day in the last 8 weeks! It's been really cool. Anyway, I interviewed Henry Okokpu for baptism yesterday and he is so humble and just spiritually sensitive. Whenever I asked him a question he would first think, and then give his answer, it was so great to see how seriously he takes these things and really expects himself to do them. I believe that he will be able to do a lot of good in his own life and in the lives of others. He's 18 right now, so I'm hoping that he is planning on serving a mission, because he is a very bright man and he will be a worthy priesthood holder.

So, the baptism. Last week we asked our ward council to do two things -- get a pianist, and get someone to represent the Relief Society. During church they announced the baptism.

Alicia and Roger asked Elder Standage and me to baptize them and so that was very exciting for us. The night of the interview we saw that Roger (8), his sister Karla (7), and their friend Oscar (6) wanted to sing "I am a child of God" at the baptism. Elder Standage knows how to play piano (even though he says he doesn't) so he got on the piano and I took charge of leading the children. It was awful, but so cute that we had to do it haha. We Had the kids sing that for the opening hymn, I love having the kids sing because no matter how good or bad they are, the spirit is always there. Elder Standage and I arrived at the church at about 1:00 to start filling the font and after it got about a stair high we found that the plug had some issues and was draining! So I had to strip down and get into the font to fix the drain, luckily it wasn't too big of a deal so we continued filling and we got it filled right on time. It was actually REALLY hot, too. But hey, that's better than cold!

The baptism was set for 4:00 and at 4 we had Alicia there, Roger, and a family friend, Carmen. Very disappointing. at 4:10 our ward mission leader showed up with the programs and copied them off and then shortly after the second counselor showed up. In all we had about 10 people there; no one from the Relief Society nor a pianist showed up. So Elder Standage played the piano and I conducted the music. What's important is that Alicia felt the spirit very strongly. She loved it and Roger, after emerging from the water exclaimed "I want to do that again!" to which I replied "you can tomorrow when you take the sacrament!" He's such a funny kid, he's so sharp.

After the baptism we had our finishing hymns etc. and then Carmen and a few of the others brought refreshments so we enjoyed some Arroz con Leche and some Mexican bread. It was great, but we were so busy that we never got pictures of us all in our white clothes!!! Grr! That was really a bummer.

Yesterday we showed up to church and apparently the bishop had forgotten about the baptism and we were told that "it seems like a lot of people just forgot." I let the 2nd counselor know (and I hope this wasn't out of line) that "I [was] very disappointed in the ward council because we couldn't even get the two things we asked for. It was very poorly played out and I don't want to see that again." After that fiasco, Alicia and Roger were then confirmed (we switched spots, so I confirmed Roger) and Alicia again felt the spirit very strongly. It was so great to see them there and receive those saving ordinances.

Ashly on the other hand unfortunately did not show up to church. We are hoping that she will be able to meet with President Evans today though and speak with him. That's a story I'll save for when I get home.

Anyway, I love you very much. I have started again in the Book of Mormon, The gathering of Israel is the theme this time around I guess. It's funny how each time you read it, it's a different theme (at least for me.) I've learned a lot about the scattering of the tribes of Israel and the reason behind that. I always thought of it as this kind of "oh no! They were wicked and Babylon destroyed them so they got scattered!" but in reality it's part of the plan of God that we might know in these days that the gospel has been restored, and more importantly (in some respects) that the second coming is near.

Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Conner Allred