Elder Shelley: 10-28-13

Dear Family!

What a great week it has been. Alison's baptism went through with ALMOST no hiccups!!! haha She showed up with plenty of time, we had the font filled a good half hour early so that we made sure that the water wasn't running when people got there so that they could feel the spirit as best as possible! We got our pictures taken before with all of her friends and as we were taking pictures he non member dad even showed up, and took a few pictures with her. She was so glad to see him there, cause he had told her that he would come, but she wasn't so sure that he was going to be able to make it. So that was a great way to be able to start the service. The talks that were given and the number of people that were there, was just so amazing and the support that was shown to her was out of this world! I was walking down into the font to perform the baptism, and as I looked down I was a little confused, cause I could have sworn that I had filled the font up to the 4th step so that it was waist high, and easy to get her under. Well when I get it, it was a bit below my knees. Super confused I looked at Elder Fajardo who was witnessing the ordinance, and neither had any idea what was wrong.. Then I heard it! Very quietly you could hear the water draining!!! The seal on the font must have been super old, cause it wasn't fully sealed and had been leaking for about 45 minutes! We tried it the first time and her knees came up even with her feet fully planted on the bottom! The water was just way to shallow... We thought that we were going to have postpone the ordinance for another 45 minutes to refill it. Alison wanted to try to do it one more time, so we figured that if she just went under, and then just stuck her legs out straight I could just push her to the bottom of the font and it would all be fine! haha surprisingly it worked, and I was able to get her fully under the water! It was one of the more interesting ways to baptize someone, but you can't get anymore interesting then baptizing Marlin on our knees and then having him go face first! awe good times good times! I love this work so much. Even when things don't seem to go as smoothly as you may hope, it always works out in the end, and it is such a blessing to be able to be apart of something this important! Alison is just on fire! She was asked yesterday by the stake president to share her testimony and her conversion story at stake conference this coming Sunday! Haha her hair was basically still wet from being baptized the day before and she is already speaking in stake conference. She also taught Gospel principles class in Sunday school this past Sunday on the Gift of the Holy Ghost! She is so solid it blows my mind. She is going to be going to BYU soon, and is planning on serving a mission in a year! It has been such a pleasure to be able to be apart of the teaching process for her! One more crazy story from the baptism! The Lord really does know the end from the beginning, cause after the service we were taking more pictures and I couldn't find my camera! I had this horrible feeling to go and check my baptismal pants, and found it in there! I had taken the camera into the font with me!!! The Lord knew that if I were to loose my pictures, that I would die! My mission pictures are more of a journal now a days then my paper journal. So if the water would have been waist high, I would have probably lost about 6-8 months of pictures!!! I love blessings of the work!

Xian is doing soooo well! He has been to every hour of church since the day that we first met him! He has been spending time with the members on the weekends and going to parties that they have. He is a really personable person, and so it is really easy to get along with him! He has been taught basically everything that he needs to be baptized, and is really looking forward to his date, that we are planning on asking him if he would like to be baptized this Sunday! He is super solid, and as long as he wants to, we will be having another baptism back to back! We have been sooo blessed in the work lately. It has been fun.

We're struggling a little bit with getting the rest of our investigators to progress though! We have 4 dates now for November, but we are really struggling to help them prepare themselves and to be excited about getting baptized. We will keep working with them though! Our zone has 20 baptism dates for November and that is the highest that we have had in years in this zone from what we can tell! We usually have about half of the dates that we start with go all the way through, so even if we only can get 10 of those, that would be the highest baptizing month this zone has ever had!!! We are soo excited!

Well I have got to end this email and send a few others that I need to so that I can get to Oakland. I have a temple recommend interview with President since mine expires end of this month. Crazy to think that I have been endowed in the Temple for over two years now! I am so thankful that we are blessed to be able to be endowed with our Heavenly Fathers power and Priesthood. I know that I still don't have even a tiny grasp on how amazing that power really is, but I am just so thankful that we are able to be apart of it! To see Temples keep popping up all over the world is just a testimony builder to me that President knows exactly what he is doing!!! I am so thankful to be a missionary at the special time that the Lord has hastened his work! Remember the promise in conference that said we all need to find one person and help to bring them into the church by Christmas! There is so much joy and so many blessings that just await these precious children of God! They just don't know it yet! Help them to know it by inviting them to come to church and to meet with he missionaries. The worst they will say is no and then you can move on and find another friend to invite. I am not saying that I think it's easy, or that I am perfect at it, but I do know how much joy it brings when it happens. Don't be afraid to invite them!!! Love you all soooo much! I can't believe how fast the time is going.. One of the elders in the zone, will be going home with me, and we had a good little behind the scenes cry as we realized last night at a stake presidents fireside with the missionaries that we would only have one more of those left, and how fast it has been going. I have had to take the tags off once already, and I can tell you that it is not something that I look forward to doing again.. But I know that it all has to come to an end at some point. It will all be done in the proper time. All I know is that we are working as hard as humanly possible these last two transfers!!! We have been a little sick this week cause of a little stress, plus the crazy drop in temp and weather! We are going to be fine though. Keep working hard and know that the Lord will make up the difference! Love you all sooo much! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Mackay Dale Shelley

Pictures: 1-3. Alison's baptism

4. Twins-Elder Fajardo and Mackay