A True Shepherd (08/25/2009)

Why hello there. Things are going well here and the weather is great too.

The baptism of Veronica ended up happening on Sunday instead of Saturday. They wanted to move it to Sunday because they wanted to announce it in Sacrament meeting. So all went well. Elder Mendez baptized her and did really well despite being very nervous. The bishop confirmed her. He said he wanted someone from the ward to do it so that’s why he did it. The ward seemed very excited to finally have someone baptized that seemed to be in for the long haul. Next up, her husband.

On Saturday there was a lady we taught in Toppenish named Maria Ojera who was baptized. I don't know if I have mentioned her before but we worked with her for weeks and she finally decided to get baptized. Her son was also baptized.

On Thursday I got a call from the Elders in Walla Walla that a guy that we tracted into, probably my last week there, has been coming to church for weeks and is getting baptized I think this Saturday. I am really excited to see the fruits of my labors starting to pay off a little more.

Well we received some news on the temple this week. We are only allowed to go every other transfer. I guess the temple is so busy they don't have room for us.

The other day we went to dinner with this family that live way out in Timbuktu. I was asking him about the farms and what not and I learned that most of the people that grow alfalfa here are shipping it to Japan. I guess it is pretty easy to just put it on a truck and take it to the Columbia River and ship it to Japan. I thought that was pretty interesting though.

Another thing I noticed is these people have such big lawns and the men are farming six days a week. So most of the time, the wife has to mow the lawn. It is just riding lawn mowers but I thought that was interesting. Oh I forgot. We mow this non-member lady’s lawn every week so I get to ride one every week. Then she wants us to burn her weeds so I get to walk around torching weeds when I am not riding the mower. I need to get a picture.

Well that’s about all I have. I just want to end with a story I call "A True Shepard"

Since right about the time Veronica was getting serious about baptism there was a lady who moved back into the ward named Mayela. She had started coming to the lessons with us before she had been back to church. She became good friends with Veronica and has really helped us with getting to know Veronica's true feelings about baptism. Well, she has been getting Veronica to church and has found her daughters some dresses and different things like that. Well this last Sunday we were in the Spanish branch and Sister Poulson got me. She said that Veronica was not at church and she would go get her but her cousin, who is not a member, was at church and she did not want to leave her. So she asked me what she should do. I said well if I can go with another Priesthood holder and we can go get her. She says “great, I will get my husband to take you guys.” So we hop in the car and go get her. She was making lunch for her husband, but she said she would come when she was done. I said well Sunday School starts in 30 minutes so if you don't come, someone else is going to come for you. She said okay and we left. Well she came on her own and had a great time and was baptized that day. That is what I call a True Shepard.

Well I better run. Have a great week.