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| Mount Evans Lake |
This was another great week in the mission. Somehow, our meal coordinator found out my
birthday and notified all of the families who had signed up for dinner this
week. So every night they sang happy
birthday to me and made really awesome desserts! It was fantastic. I got Grandma & Grandpa's package Thursday
afternoon and am so excited to eat the homemade jam! I have soooo much candy it's ridiculous! My candy drawer in my desk is no longer big
enough!
So, on Thursday, we spent the morning studying and then we
taught one of our investigators about more Commandments (i.e. prayer, reading scriptures, following the prophet, Fasting). He is so stoked about being baptized this
week. As long as everything works out,
we will have it on this Friday. Later
that night he went with us to a member’s home for a lesson. We watched the hour long Restoration movie and
had pumpkin pie! And they bought me a
pair of really awesome snow gloves. We
had so much fun that night! It was a
great way to spend my birthday.
Then, it happened. I
got put on exchanges with Elder Walton. He
has to be the most socially awkward/clueless person I've yet to meet on my
mission. He is a genuinely nice person
and can be pretty funny. Anyways, our
service Friday evening was to stain a members deck, which I've had lots of
practice from staining our fences (Thanks Dad!). I was working on one section while he was
working on another. When I caught up to
where he was at, I looked at my progress and was thoroughly impressed. I turned to look at his side and was in horror
at the atrocity I saw. It looked like
someone had taken a deer and slaughtered it all over the deck, the house,
concrete, her landscaping. I almost
screamed! I felt so bad for how it
looked. Not even a minute later she came
over to check on our progress. There was
absolutely nothing I could do. I could
tell she wasn't pleased, but she didn't say much. I just kept apologizing. I guess I should have taken charge a little
more (Later I got the situation appeased and she thinks its funny now).
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| Upper Black Lake |
So, Saturday was the big day this week. We helped a member move from our ward into a
home in the neighboring ward, and went over to the stake center to start
prepping for the baptism. Exchanges were
finally over! We filled the font and got
all the chairs set up, the young girl was so excited she couldn't stop jumping!
All of the sizes for the jumpsuits for
me to wear in the font ranged from XL - 4XL. Luckily they had one on the women's side that
was smaller and fit better (they're unisex anyways). We took some pictures and started the program.
I was a little nervous about baptizing
her, but I knew it was going to be o.k. It
became time for the ordinance and I helped her get into the font. I was showing her how she should have her
hands and she just started trying to dunk herself into the water. I was holding her up by my arm trying to tell
her "Wait, I have to say a prayer first!" Everyone watching chuckled a little, but I
said the prayer and everything went smoothly! Her mom was crying and I just really felt the
spirit in that room. I went back into
the changing room to change and after a while my companion came in to say
"Hurry up! You're the last one and we've
been waiting on you for 6 primary songs!" I guess she changed really fast and everyone
thought I was spending time fixing my hair hahaha. The young girl got up at the end of her
baptism and wanted to thank everyone for coming and helping her get baptized,
it was the sweetest thing. To top off a
wonderful day, the family in our ward who does the "Hot Sauce"
challenge, their son's birthday was the day after mine, so they signed up for
dinner to take us both out for a birthday dinner. Their son chose the restaurant Tucano's. It's a Brazilian restaurant that was fantastic
it's all you can eat, and the side dishes are buffet style, but servers come to
your table and have a bunch of different types of meat on skewers and slide
some onto your plate. I had Sirloin, filet mignon, turkey wrapped in bacon,
briscuit, wings, sausages, roasted pineapple w/ brown sugar, and even chicken
hearts! It was such an awesome dinner! We had so much fun talking and laughing with
them that evening and afterwards they had homemade pumpkin pie and derby pie
(like a cookie pie). We were so full
afterwards that I couldn't laugh without feeling like I was going to puke. It was a completely fulfilling week, and I
know this week is going to be the same. I
love you all so much! I am having a
wonderful time and hope you are all doing the same. I love hearing your funny stories for the
week.
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| Stanley Canyon |
Here are my top 5 moments.
1. Staining the deck (wasn't funny at the time, but it's
funny now)
2. The young girl trying to baptize herself before we were
ready.
3. Dinner at Tucano's. Both their sons were making funny noises. The 14 year old sounded like a squealing pig,
and the 10 year old sounded like a baby that was crying incessantly. It freaked one of our servers out!
4. The investigator who might be baptized this week, out of
fun, likes to debate with my companion on commandments and quote Book of Mormon
scriptures to mess with him. It's funny
to watch.
5. This week while playing capture the flag (Colorado
Springs Zone vs. Fountain Zone) an elder and a sister were running at each
other trying to tag each other and they slammed their heads together. She split her chin open and had to go to a
prompt care, and he almost passed out. They keep making fun of each other now.
God is Great!
Elder Gillingwater
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