Abilene week 23

Javier and Flo enter the waters of baptism

Ok, I was going to keep you in suspense this whole time about what happened with Javier and Flo this week, but I decided that would be too mean. Guess what? They both got baptized on Friday!!! It was a great baptism. There were so many things that tried to prevent it from happening, but it still happened. The morning of Friday, a big ice storm rolled in, and the baptism almost got cancelled.

Elder Moffitt making that font plug work!

Then when we arrived an hour and a half early to fill up the font, the font plug was broken and the water was draining out. The 2nd picture here is of me trying to wedge it in there and get it to work. We eventually had to bring in a water jug from the kitchen and lay it on top of the plug to get it to stay.

The service was great. Javier and Flo had lots of family who came in, some from an hour and a half away to see their baptism. I was dumb and didn't get a picture of all their family that came. Then Javier was pretty funny and flashing his big tattoo that covers his whole forearm while wearing his baptism jumpsuit. I didn't get a picture of that one either... I regret it. But that's ok. I will always remember it.

Scraping ice off the window....we WILL get to that baptism today!

Here I am the day of the baptism scraping ice off the car. We don't have an ice scraper (we're getting one), so we used a plastic bottlecap from some gatorade we had in the car. It worked pretty well. The only bad news about the baptism is that the ice storm continued into Sunday. It wasn't really THAT bad, but it was bad enough for the stake president to call all the bishops and tell them to cancel church. Converts don't get confirmed at their baptism. They get confirmed at church that Sunday. So... yup. Javier and Flo got baptized, but they have not yet received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I'll tell you what, this will be the longest week of my life as we all wait until this coming Sunday for them to be confirmed. We talked to them yesterday, and they were disappointed that church got cancelled, but they still have that fire burning within them. Be sure to keep them in your prayers.

One more thing, Nancy and Griselda will not be able to be baptized this coming weekend. We were not able to meet with them this week. There has been lots going on with them involving court, and then this weekend there was no church, and since they haven't been twice they will not be able to be baptized this week. I think everything is fine with them though. We just need to re-connect with them this week.

Church cancelled.....look at how bad that storm is outside

Here we are Sunday morning just after we found out that church was cancelled. Look at how bad the storm is outside. It's crazy! Just kidding, it wasn't bad at all. But these Texans are just like those Virginians when it comes to winter precipitation. Anyway, that day we were also told that we could not go outside at all. That was at 9am. We then finished our studies. 

To icy to go out......how about a little Apples to Apples?

After that, Elder Hancock and Pasquale came over and we played LDS version of Apples to Apples. It was fun. They sell a Bible version down here in Texas. Elder Hancock modified it slightly into the LDS version. We also had gingerbread cookies. Yum. Then at 1:30 the zone leaders came in and told us that work was back on for the day until 6pm. At that point we had already cancelled our three lessons for the day (which we also had members coming too!). Well, those lessons were at 12, 6, and 7... So we couldn't even re-shedule any of them anyway. And church was still cancelled. Overall, it was a pretty depressing day. But that's ok. We still made the best of it. And with Javier and Flo being baptized earlier that week, it was hard to get my spirits down after that. They will be confirmed in less than a week :)

So this week was very exciting. I'll start with Monday. Last Monday we went to the zoo. We had 10 of us go. We were able to get quite a few good pictures, but since it takes forever to load each one. I will only send a few for the sake of time. I thought the second one was the best. We set the cameras on the car on the side of the road and did a 10 second timer. Then we all had to sprint over to the big ZOO sign to get into the picture in time. As you can see, we didn't all quite make it. It was a really fun day. And back then, it was nice and warm too...

We hear everyone has a twin in the world......

And another zoo picture. We were told by the sister missionaries that came to the zoo that we looked like these animals, so we got a picture with them.

This week was a good one for food too. I made Muddy Buddies! They are super good. I used butterscotch instead of peanut butter. I really do like cooking and just making food in general. That's really good because it goes along well with one of my other favorite activities, eating.

Here we are huddling around the Christmas tree for warmth. Yes, it did get very cold this week. Thursday while we were in the middle of a lesson outside the cold front rolled in. I remember the exact moment. Elder Banks was reading a scripture then suddenly there was just a big gust of wind, and it didn't stop. We were wearing short sleeves and we were fine. But then 10 minutes later we were freezing. It was pretty crazy.

Anyway, I have a bunch more pictures, but these computers load them so slowly, you'll just have to wait until I send home a full memory card. I think I sent you some of the best ones though. Well, I gotta get going unfortunately. I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney! Love your favorite missionary, Elder Moffitt