Sept 20th 2010

Hey,

The baptism was wonderful. It was a really great experience. It was probably the best baptism I have attended. Andrew was awesome. It was definitely one of the highlights of my mission. It started at 6 oclock on Saturday and lots of people showed up. Elder haley and I showed up extra early to fill up the font. and then about and hour before the baptism Andrew and the Wilsons showed up and they got changed and we took pictures. Then the baptism started and it just went great. Elder Haley and I did the talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost and then he got baptized. While he was changing we had our ward mission leader bare his testimony which was very powerful. Everything just kept adding to the Spirit, I felt like Elder Haley and I did good on our talks and then there was the baptism and then Bro Sly's testimony, and then Bishop did a great job of welcoming Andrew in the ward.

After that Bro Sly felt prompted to ask Andrew if he would like to share some thoughts. Andrew said he would, he hesitated a little bit but said yeah, and Andrew is a very quiet guy, he doesnt talk a whole lot, which is like me and Elder Haley, anyway, he just said that he felt so good, and he thanked everyone for coming. Then he said that he knew that the Book of Mormon was true and he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet, which made me very happy to hear. It was very joyful and then afterwards Andrew came up and thanked me for all that I had done to help. He thanked me for teaching him and helping him. I really didnt feel like I did anything, I dont think he realizes at all how golden of an investigator he was, and I didnt really feel like I should be thanked for feeling such joy, but it was still neat to hear. Andrew is a good guy. Then yesterday he got comfirmed. So that was the highlight of the week definitely.

There was one other cool story that we had. There was a guy I think I mentioned a a couple months ago who was a less active and had started coming back to church. We just went to his house once and then he came back to church. We kept visiting him though about once a week to help him keep feeling the spirit and to stay strong. Well this weekend he actually moved to be closer to family and so we went to go see him on Friday before he moved. Well he told us that he had not thought about coming back to church in years but he had just started thinking he should start going back and he said that that was when we showed up. He told us that we came back at the perfect time, and really made a difference for him, and that now he wants to get sealed to his wife in the temple. That is like the best thing you could ever hear as a missionary, and meant alot to me. One time when he came to church I told him I liked his tie and it was a really cool tie and then on Friday he gave it to me to remember him. I feel like saying I felt joy is an understatement, I just cant really describe how it feels to help people find the gospel, but it is the best feeling. It is a testimony to me that the church is true. Well thank you for the email and Congratulations to you too with Eric. That is awesome. Talk to you next week.

Love,
Elder Larson