May 8, 2010

Today was an amazing day! It was one of those days where 2 years just doesn't seem long enough to be a missionary. This morning was Mormon Helping Hands Day. All over California wards all over the state did service projects in their communities. Our ward went to Buchanan Park (a really big/nice park in Pittsburg) and planted flowers and trees, painted benches and tables and picked up trash beside the creek that runs through the park. It was a great morning! After we had a picnic at the pavilion in the park. Then tonight was Tui's baptism. It was a great service. Everything went great - except that it started a half hour late! (Tongan time...) But I had the opportunity to baptize Tui. I had never baptized anyone, and it was a great experience. Since I had never baptized anyone until today, it was the first time that I have worn my white baptism clothes. Before my mission my wonderful mother marked EVERYTHING in black marker so it wouldn't get mixed up with anyone else's clothes. She put TC4 on my clothes, my luggage, and all my belongings. As I got dressed in all white tonight I put on my white socks and there was a big black TC4 mark on the toes of my socks! I thought oh mother! I didn't want to desecrate the ordinance by not wearing all white (with big black spots on my socks!) so I took my socks off before entering the font! But the baptism went really well. The spirit was very strong and there was such a good feeling. After the baptism, Tui bore her testimony. It was a very sincere testimony. Tui is awesome! She has been through a lot in life, but has made it to where she is at today. She has a health issue that causes her to be a little slow, but she has a heart of gold! She understands and is very smart (she can speak 3 languages fluently), but just has a hard time expressing herself. We were kind of nervous to have her interviewed for baptism because a few days before, we went over the interview questions with her and she was really having a difficult time answering. She understands, but she couldn't put it into words. So before her interview, we gave her a blessing. She went through the interview and passed! After it was over Elder Murphy (the one who gave it) said "I don't know what you were worried about she passed with flying colors!" Priesthood blessings work!