Katarina got baptized!
November 5, 2012:
Baptism! KRST!
This week was great! As of yesterday, the Church has a new member. And boy, is she happy about that! This week pretty much just led up to the baptism, but I think this week was also Halloween, right? That fell on a Wednesday, when we have English, so we had Halloween vocabulary and then Elder Nye as our guest speaker who came to tell us real-life scary stories. They loved it. [One of our investigators] turned the lights off while he told the stories--it was great. But other than that, not much to tell, just that this week the Slovaks also celebrated a holiday for the dead, but what they do is they buy tons of flowers and candles and go visit all kinds of graves. One of our investigators goes every year with his son to all family graves, including in Germany. He told us the oldest grave he visits was from the 1500s. Amazing. I hope he gets baptized so that those names get to the temple... :)
Baptism! KRST!
This week was great! As of yesterday, the Church has a new member. And boy, is she happy about that! This week pretty much just led up to the baptism, but I think this week was also Halloween, right? That fell on a Wednesday, when we have English, so we had Halloween vocabulary and then Elder Nye as our guest speaker who came to tell us real-life scary stories. They loved it. [One of our investigators] turned the lights off while he told the stories--it was great. But other than that, not much to tell, just that this week the Slovaks also celebrated a holiday for the dead, but what they do is they buy tons of flowers and candles and go visit all kinds of graves. One of our investigators goes every year with his son to all family graves, including in Germany. He told us the oldest grave he visits was from the 1500s. Amazing. I hope he gets baptized so that those names get to the temple... :)
Katarina and Elder Nye
So we taught Katarina daily this week to prepare her. She had her interview, tried on clothes, practiced the baptism... arranged the refreshments. It was a party. And actually, we didn’t do much of the refreshments. Katarina is so on top of things I just love her. She did that. She came to a lesson during the week and said, "I have ordered two cakes. One white, one dark. It symbolizes my baptism." Hahaha, I was so happy.
Sister Brimhall, Katarina, me, Elder Nye
Thursday was her interview, and she passed with flying colors. Afterwards we helped her find a white jumpsuit that would fit her best (when do these ever actually fit someone?), and it was so great, because the Nyes and the Elders were there, since the Nyes were teaching with us, and the Elders were there for the interview. We asked them all to come help us finish our cleaning project, which I will tell you about in a second, and it is just the best feeling when people are in the Church building, and everything is buzzing about. I just love that. Anyway, so Katarina was trying these jumpsuits on, and we are just in an office in this old building, and the bathroom is out in the hallway which we share with other companies, and so Katarina was back and forth in these white jumpsuits, and we saw people walking past the doorway to go to the bathroom, and we were just cracking up thinking about how they must be wondering what on earth this lady is wearing. It was beautiful.
Sister Brimhall, Katarina, me, sister Dobiasova
Friday night we had a lesson with sister Dobiasova, and Katarina had rushed over from a funeral and was sad, so we changed our lesson plan and just read out of the Scriptures in Alma 40. It was great, and everyone felt good.
The next morning Katarina and sister D were at the Church early to set up for the baptism. They were setting up cakes when we came in, and Katarina was so excited! We all bussed down together to the hotel. Unfortunately the only place for baptisms is this hotel spa thing with no lights. It's so weird. So we tried to open windows, but it was so dark. They also forgot to heat the water so Elder Nye gasped when he got in! The program was good though, I've been the piano player for months now, so that's how I contributed, and the Elders and I had a musical number. An AMAZING amount of investigators came. Even this atheist from our English class came because we just handed him an invite. Katarina was so great. Just love her. She took 25 minutes to change though, so we were just singing and singing... hahah.
The next morning Katarina and sister D were at the Church early to set up for the baptism. They were setting up cakes when we came in, and Katarina was so excited! We all bussed down together to the hotel. Unfortunately the only place for baptisms is this hotel spa thing with no lights. It's so weird. So we tried to open windows, but it was so dark. They also forgot to heat the water so Elder Nye gasped when he got in! The program was good though, I've been the piano player for months now, so that's how I contributed, and the Elders and I had a musical number. An AMAZING amount of investigators came. Even this atheist from our English class came because we just handed him an invite. Katarina was so great. Just love her. She took 25 minutes to change though, so we were just singing and singing... hahah.
Then we went back to the Church for a party, and not everyone came but enough that it was fun.
Anyway, I ran out of time, because I was emailing you other stuff, I’m so sorry. Pictures say a thousand words! We also de-junked the Church building this week. The back room was a junk room, and now we teach in it! Love it. The Holy Ghost is there. Alright! I love you. Next week we shall meet again!
Also Father dear, there are still 2 weeks left of this transfer :). I'll keep you posted.
Sister Izatt
Anyway, I ran out of time, because I was emailing you other stuff, I’m so sorry. Pictures say a thousand words! We also de-junked the Church building this week. The back room was a junk room, and now we teach in it! Love it. The Holy Ghost is there. Alright! I love you. Next week we shall meet again!
Also Father dear, there are still 2 weeks left of this transfer :). I'll keep you posted.
Sister Izatt