January 26, 2015 - a baptism

Dear family,

This week was one of the most rewarding of my mission. Jasmine was baptized this last Saturday and was confirmed on Sunday! It was so spiritually uplifting to be a part of teaching her and witnessing her baptism! She has made so many changes in her life to allow the gospel in and has definitely been so much happier because of it!

It's hard to think of  anything else to write about! I wasn't prepared for how happy I would be to be such a big part of her being baptized! It truly was a miracle, everything fell into place at the right time! I mentioned it before but we texted her on P-day to see when she was available and decided to teach her because she was available in the afternoon. We're here to be missionaries and primarily to teach people, not play basketball with other missionaries so that's what we did! ;)

The Elder who originally contacted Jasmine and began teaching her was able to come down to Christchurch to perform the ordinance and one of the members in the ward that has been a part of the whole teaching process, David Smith, confirmed her. It was such a fantastic day! It seems fit that missionaries be happy on a day with a baptism but it was a good day for so many other reasons as well.

While we were waiting for Jasmine to change out of her wet clothes I had the chance to bear my testimony and I felt inspired to pour my heart out about how much I love the people of this ward. I truly love so many members of the Christchurch ward and will be forever grateful for the help they have given me as a missionary and as a person as well. I made a joke about how shell-shocked I was my first Sunday and how much I had changed since then and I was a little offended at how loud they laughed! I didn't think I had looked to frightened but apparently I looked pretty scared and sad on my first Sunday in the ward. But everything has changed so much since then, I know that it was revelation given to President Millar that lead me to come here. I love this place and the people so much. I know this is where I am supposed to serve.

The gospel is love. Pure, simple, but more powerful than anything else. I love it so much and I know that is the purpose of our existence at all, is to experience love to it's fullest.

I love you all so much!

Here are some of the pictures from the baptism!