Baptisamos!

     "In the great California Ventura Mission; we are preach my gospel missionaries. We baptize. We obey with exactness. We seek to be trusted more than loved. And we teach with power and authority." That was something we recited everyday with President Castro. These were what we call the 5 areas of focus. This is who we are in the mission. 

      On Saturday we had a baptism. Sister Woodland and I along with a little bit of help from Sister Thompson put together a baptism for Mayra this week. Her missionaries that taught her are in Simi Valley but she moved into our ward so we had (strike that.) We got to put everything together and see her baptized! And the Hermanas that taught her were able to come to the service! That was a blessing because we can only go to baptisms that are in our district, and they are out of our zone. So it was so fun to see them! I have missed not being able to talk to them. I served around one of them in Santa Barbara so I really got to know her there and then the other Sister I have looked up to since the first day of my mission. She is Tongan and that automatically makes her great. But on top of that she is such a powerful teacher. So I have always wanted to get to know her. Through this baptism I was able to which was so fun! And then to make it better she gave me the sweetest compliment as she was saying goodbye. She told me that she was so grateful that she was able to get to know me better because she had seen me at all of these meetings and thought "she seems like such a powerful missionary I want to get to know her better." This coming from a sister training leader who I have looked up to forever now. Made my day.

      So anyway, Back to Mayra, we are now teaching her son who we are hoping will be baptized by the end of this transfer as well. I know it will happen one day because in her confirmation blessing it talked about that. So cool! I wish you all could have heard it. She is going to be a powerful influence for good from here on out! Wow! So that is the exciting news.

     OH!! Millie is set for July 26th as well! We have been teaching her the last few weeks and at first she told us that she dropped the Elders because she felt like they were forcing her into baptism and she didn't like that. So she let us come teach her and on Father's day she says "I think I need to start thinking about baptism before I get any sicker." WHAT!? so we just kind of left it at that thinking that nothing would come of it, but then when Sister Woodland and I were saying goodbye last Monday she told us that she was thinking about getting baptized around her birthday which was July 15th. So we set her with an official date a couple of days after that. So excited! You guys, she used to be atheist and now feels bad that she ignored Heavenly Father for so long. It is a miracle that she wants to be baptized. She had the coolest near death experience a little over 10 years ago where her family members told her that she came early and that they weren't expecting her yet. They also told her she had a choice to stay with them or come back and fulfill her purpose. Whoa! I wish I could tell you all of her amazing experiences. But that would take too long. Ask me after the mission :)

      Oh! We welcomed in a new mission president this week! And Sister Thompson and I were the first Sisters to meet him. Yeah buddy! He and Sister Felix came to the baptism which was so cool! They also forgot their name tags at home. Not that this is a bad thing, but President Castro would have died before he let that happen. Needless to say, we are so excited to have President Felix here and the mission is going to be doing a lot of changing I think. Also he is the type who stares into your sole when he shakes your hand. I love it but it is intimidating at the same time.

     Ok, quick spiritual thought for this post;

I was studying Ruth this morning and i just realized how great she is. She lost her husband and then left her home and family to be with him mom. Then she sets to work in a field all day long. After that one of the people over her shows her kindness and tells her that because of her faith the Lord is blessing her. So not only is she a hard worker but she is has a lot of faith in the Lord and knows that He will watch out for her. I want to be like her.

Oh and compliment for the week goes to Dad. He is a very hard worker and has shown me a lot about how to work for the things you need and how to really earn them. Thanks for your example dad!

Ok have a great week people! Love you all!

Sister Skeeter