12 April 2011

Hello family!

I'll start with the best news.

After 16 1/2 months of waiting, fasting, and prayer, we have finally received permission from the First Presidency to have Jamie get baptized. It is such a wonderful relief and is fantastic news. Jamie cried and cried when we told her. We are all so excited. Christine and Jamie both had successful baptism interviews on Saturday, and we made baptism plans yesterday for the baptism service this upcoming Saturday. We will probably have to do it in the chapel instead of the regular room because there will be so many people coming. Elder Bailey will baptize Christine and Bishop Marler will baptize and confirm Jamie. A bishopric counselor will confirm Christine. We are so excited!!

The same night we told Jamie and Christine the good news, we had another lesson previous to it with Malina, a recently-activated recent convert. She told us a really neat experience. Long before she investigated and joined the church in Washington, she was living in Riverside, CA. She knew some Mormons but didn't like the church very much, and didn't care. Everyday she would go to work by walking a half mile or so to her bus stop, then ride to work. Many times, she would pass a man that was dressed very business-like, well groomed and whatnot. He would tell her every day in passing, "Minette is looking for you." This happened over and over again. About 6 or 7 years later, she missionaries in Washington state, and accepted the Gospel and was baptized. Soon after she came out of the water, it occurred to her what that man had said such a long time before. She had been baptized into the Minette Ward in Washington.

We've had some good lessons with John this week, finally. He got a new laptop, and his favorite website recently has been lds.org. He's been watching a lot of Gen Conf talks from past years and this past conference. He still didn't come to church this week, but we are still hopeful for him

We have started teaching Max [edit]. We found his wife, Rebecca, several weeks ago when the relief society president gave us a bunch of unknown sisters' names to find. She had grown up in the church and married Max, a non-member. They came to church about 3 times, then now we have started teaching them. They told us before we taught anything that he wanted to join the church so they could be sealed in the temple. That makes our job significantly easier! He is scheduled to be baptized on May 7. He is super. They are a young couple, Max is 21, Becca is 20. He is in the Marines and they both work on Pendleton. They read and pray and go to church, and are getting to know people quickly. We are excited for him and her.

August got his patriarchal blessing this week. He is officially engaged, and he and his fiance are about to take temple prep classes, as well as Malina.

The Boroughs went to Salt Lake last week and brought back some Grandma Sycamores bread. It is so, so good. I miss it.

I ate a PB and honey sandwich this week. Ate most of it, and before I took another bite, I realized a live earwig was sitting in my next bite. I threw it away. Yuck.

Ren [edit] (one of our favorite members) showed us a picture he took in Salt Lake on his mission (SL South mission). It was one of the highway signs that usually tell travel times or amber alerts. It read "It's the 31st! Have you done your home teaching?" Only in Utah.

We've heard some reports that archeologists are finding metal plates containing old records all around the world. They are very similar to the gold plates Joseph Smith had. Some news stations apparently have said things like "maybe, just maybe the Mormons have it right." Do y'all have more info on that? That's sure awesome, because most poeple think it's really weird that the Book of Mormon came from gold plates.

That is all I have for this week. Pictures of baptism and today's zoo trip are coming soon. Lots of hot weather and sun down here. Hope y'all are enjoying the spring wherever you are. Love you all very much. Have a good week

Elder Jon La Follette

PS-- P-Day for the last week of April is on MONDAY because Elder L. Tom Perry is coming to our mission Tuesday, Apr 26. So make sure to send your emails before then.