Abilene week 26

Elder Moffitt, Azriel, Branch President and Elder Banks

Azriel got baptized this Saturday!!! He had to work late, so he was half an hour late to his baptism, but these things are kind of just expected at this point. The service was great! After he got dressed again, he shared his testimony, and it was so strong. Everyone commented on how they loved his testimony! He said how right after he was baptized he felt a peaceful feeling that was unlike he had ever felt before in his life. He said that every time we came over or teach him, or every time he reads the Book of Mormon or goes to church he just feels so calm. It was super sweet. Btw, we had to baptize him twice because the first time we think he didn't quite go all the way under. It was a fun experience. Then our branch president after he got out of the font he saw that the plug was still in, so he turned around, said "yeha!" and jumped back into the font to unplug it. Just a little taste of our Texas Spanish Branch for ya!

The only issue with the baptism is.... Azriel got called in to work last minute on Sunday, so he wasn't able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. I hope this doesn't become a trend with our converts.... So, we're praying hard for him. And once again, this will likely be a long week.

And here I am as we fill up the font in preparation for Azriel's baptism.

Soooooo cold this week!!!!

It was an awfully cold week. And bike day was chilling to the bone. Here we are wearing our beanies underneath our helmets too. 

Thanks for my Texas Christmas ornament Courtney!

And thank you for the package I got this week! The Texas ornament is great! By the way, we did love the peppermint bark. Why would you even need to ask? Thank you so much! That stuff is the best, especially yours mom! Elder Banks had never had peppermint bark before, so don't worry I shared a lot with him too. He also fell in love with it.

Last night we were able to have a great lesson with Nancy and Gricelda (I figured out that's how to spell her name this week). At the beginning, Nancy told us that she too has now received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, and that this is the right path. Great! So we challenged them both to be baptized this Saturday! They weren't so sure about that. But we had a spirit filled lesson with them talking about baptism, the Holy Ghost, tons of blessings, and they opened up a lot to it. They agreed to pray about it intently, and tonight  we are stopping by for just a very short visit to see how their prayers went and hopefully they will have gotten that answer that this Saturday isn't too soon. I believe they are ready. It's a big step, but I fell that they are both ready to make it. They have the beginning testimony they need to be baptized. So, as you can imagine, this will be a busy week once again.

We were able to pick up two new investigators this week, Elsa and Rodrigo. They are both 24, and they have a 2 year old son. They are not married yet, so that will definitely be something very important to address. We were only able to have half a lesson with them (right up to before Joseph Smith restores the church after the apostasy) because their son, along with the other 3 kids they were babysitting starting causing too much trouble. But, they liked what they heard so far. They weren't there for our followup appointment, but we will try to re-contact them this week.

We were not able to meet up with Juan or Paul this week :(

We were able to meet Juan and Rosenda this week (sorry having 2 investigators named Juan may be a little confusing). Rosenda is pretty dang set in here Catholic ways. Juan, though, has read 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon, probably more by now, and he really likes it. He is a really cool guy, and the gospel will help him out a ton. Hopefully we will be able to set a baptism date with him this week. And we can never seem to meet up with Sofia anymore. I don't know what happened. But they seem to always be busy. We keep trying though. It's hard because Tuesday and Thursday at 5 are the only good times for them, and we usually end up having appointments at those times with our other investigators.

Here we are at district lunch. Once a month we get to go out to lunch after district meeting. This time we went to the Great Wall Buffett. As a missionary, often times quantity goes over quality when it comes to food.

Giving myself a haircut....??????? Notice there is no after picture!

This picture is of me giving myself a haircut, due to Elder Hancock's (our usual barber) absence.

Here is my Christmas planner. I thought I would be festive with a cover of the wise men and the shepherds.

Well, that's about it for this week. Oh, one last note of good news... We can skype now. So, send me your skype name so on Christmas I can log on to a member's computer and call you up! I thought that would be an exciting note to end on for the week :) I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Courtney! I love you Meagan!