This week- the
highlight, hands down, was Juan's baptism! He is the first ASL baptism in
our mission and he has made so much progress – he even quit smoking! He
was baptized Sunday and for the musical number, we played a video from lds.org entitled "Christlike
Attributes. Everyone really should watch it, it is so good, AND we didn't
have to interpret. It was so neat, we had 2 less-actives in the program, Jim
(excommunicated & made us glass stones) was the first person to come!!!
Also, the deaf ones that came were Jose- from Torrence (2 hour bus ride), Gabby
Gonzalez (less-active we’ve been teaching) and she brought a friend named Juan
(seemed to like the baptism, so we referred him to the ASL Elders in LA because
he's all the way from Torrence. Plus, we had Don/Anna speak (a deaf couple in
our ward). A lot of the deaf people we invited didn't show, but hey, we
had 7 people in the deaf class on Sunday, whereas before we came, we didn't
even have one! The baptism was so amazing and Juan was so funny.
The first thing he does after popping out of the water was turn and give
Brother Gerhardt (the elder who baptized him) a thumbs up! After the
baptism, we had lunch with Juan at our Ward Mission Leader’s home. He
shook hands with everybody and then headed out for his bus ride home. I’m
sure he was tired after a long day, but he is so awesome and we’re so happy for
him!
It was so cool,
but soooooo fast!!!!! It’s funny, I thought I would feel some relief with the
knowledge that "okay, at least I changed one person's life, and I would
get that worry off my chest." But, it’s quite the opposite. Now I feel
ready to do anything to set up another baptismal date with our investigators.
It really IS only the first step. A crucial step indeed, and next week he'll
get the Holy Ghost. Ultimately, I cannot wait until we can come back in a year
and go through the temple with Juan. THAT’S the goal...
Funny, because
after the baptism, we went home, ate some chips and salsa for dinner, then
started knocking on doors again. (Funny transition, back to stage one).
But, I just picture every person I see in that white jumpsuit and I can't help
but smile, and want to do whatever it takes to make that become a reality.
For the 4th
of July, we had a ward breakfast and that was delicious – pancakes and sausage,
yum. We invited all these people from the ward to the activity and none
came – oh well, it was still good to reach out to a few families in our
ward. We didn’t see any fireworks, but a member in the ward was sweet and
gave us hamburgers, watermelon and cherry cobbler for our 4th of
July dinner, so that was really nice. It was really loud too – tons of
fireworks going off and sirens blaring everywhere, but honestly that is nothing
that unusual. We didn’t want to be out on the streets when it got late,
so we sticky noted a recent widow’s garage and then visited Shi-Yu – the
Chinese woman with dementia.
Well, that wraps
up my awesome week. The work keeps moving forward, and next up we will
get Peter (the one from forever ago w/ the tattoos and fancy cars and gangsta
hat). Got in contact w/ him again, and he wants us back, bad. He might've
been still drunk from the 4th, but we're hoping to teach him again! It’s
so cool the think though, that NOW is the time, NOW is the day. All of the
other dispensations have built up to this last day, and I hope I can do all I
can to do as President Uchtdorf advised in conference - "Not sleep through
the Restoration." I want to labor in His work, not be an observer,
and I’d invite you all to do the same. It’s not enough just to save
ourselves.
Love ya tons!
-Sister Jessica
McNeill
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