Elder Samuel Ward: Missouri Independence Mission: Another one joins the fold! -Week 19

Hey fam! This was such an AWESOME week!

We started off Monday evening going to the wonderful family of Collin and Ashley Smith again. The snowball fight people. Well, we had awesome breakfast for dinner, I take my plate to the sink, look up, turn around, and see people holding high tech nerf guns. IT WAS ON!! I got wrecked. hahaha Their 4 yr old son Nolan is such a pro. He has awesome hiding places, and shot me more than i could handle. We also had an ugly face contest...I think i won, but I'll leave that for you to
decide below.

Tuesday was good, we tried to find some new gators, but ended up unsuccessful. But we passed out like a ton of Book of Mormon copies. So #SeedsPlanted.

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders Wednesday night for learning purposes. I was with Elder Vehar. He is super awesome. Ww taught Jan and had a great conversation about baptism, it was really open, which was good, because we haven't been able to talk about it for a while. She is definitely getting way close! She stopped going to her old church, and is making baby steps to the Church of Jesus Christ! Also, Elder Vehar and I threw some glow sticks around the apartment later that night..it was fun.

The next day, we had lunch at a place called Jazz. Apparently they give free food to missionaries, it's been 2 miles away from our house the whole time and we had no idea. So hooray! That's fun. Its really good! and they played a Curtis Stigers song!

That night we went on exchanges with the District Leader, and Elder Ili came here with me! He's so fun and so cool! We sang non stop, and went to see a lot of people!

The next day was Theresa's Baptism! Which was really stressfully AMAZING! We have been searching for weeks for a baptismal jumpsuit that would fit her...to no success. We finally had to settle with a 5x that she was just swimming in. LUCKILY, we finally got permission from the temple to borrow one of their jumpsuits, that day!!! haha, so Brother Reynolds went and grabbed it. It all worked out! We spent about 2.5 hours filling the font, which was just ridiculous. haha. So we did that, and got everything ready to go. The time finally came and we started! I gave a talk about baptism, and then we went to baptize her, (which bishop Bebel did)

Well...we opened the curtain aaannddd HALF THE WATER DRAINED OUT IN
ABOUT 13 MINUTES!! HOORAY!! Well, I panicked, kind of a lot...President and Sister Vest were there and it took so long to fill up in the first place! ssooo, it turns out that we have a leaky plug, the
plug is built into the font, and something was messed up. So we grabbed a TV and throw on the 20 minute restoration video while it is filling back up. I definitely had my testimony grown this week that
everything happens for a reason, and the reason is usually preparatory for bringing people into the gospel.

Like i said before, I definitely panicked when we learned that a lot of water had drained out of the
font. I was embarrassed for us, and was worried that we made things stressful for Theresa.... Well, It filled back up in about 15 minutes, and we ended up just ending right after the first vision. She was
baptized and it was one of the most amazing things ever! The spirit was so strong, and I know that it happened just as it needed to. Then Elder Kolacz gave a talk and we were done!

On Sunday, a sister who Theresa works for came up to me at church. She said that at the baptism, she went back during the restoration movie that we put on to go talk to Theresa. She said she found her on the bench, crying and smiling. Theresa looked at her, nodded her head and said "It's true!" Theresa had a confirming witness that what she was making was the right choice, and gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. To me, that is the most rewarding thing that I was able to see as a missionary. Yes the baptism was amazing, but the fact that she now has for herself that testimony, tells me that she is more likely to stay very active and endure to make more covenants and that I have done my job as a missionary.

I KNOW that the water had to drain for a reason. So she could have that time to ponder. And there is no way it could've filled up again that fast, save it were only God's will. (Because it took like 3 hours to fill the first time.) I know that it happened for a reason, and it's such an amazing feeling to be a part of that.

Then, i got the opportunity to Confirm her a member of the church!!! It was so awesome!! I'm so grateful that she asked me to do that. and the spirit was SO strong!! Anyways- definitely an awesome week.

So, Elder Kolacz got another training call that day, so it is for sure that one of us will be transferred. We aren't sure who yet, but it will most likely be me, but you never know. So transfers are this week. So probably don't send anything until next week if your going to. :)

I went to the WW1 museum today!! It was so sick!!! It took like 5 hours to get through, but totally worth it. It's the only one in America of that caliber, and is definitely world class. I learned a lot!!