Shout Outttts!!!!
Thank you so much to the Roberts family! I received your Christmas package this week and my roommates and I cannot wait till we get to open them all! We have even started looking up some of the scriptures and started guessing what they could be :)
Thank you to Nathan Summers for the care package! It has brought many smiles over this past week especially your favorite childhood toy ;) Sister Waal and I almost died laughing at the flaming hot Cheetos!
Thank you to Sister Bennett and Sister Begieneman for the wonderful baked goods!
MOM you are the greatest! You are so thoughtful and I am so excited to explore the package you got me :)
I am not quite sure what to say... words are failing me and I feel like I have been staring at this screen for years. Please bear with me as I try and describe the events of yesterday.
We have been working with Jake and Winnie for about 8 weeks and in just 8 weeks I have seen both of them completely transform. It has been the most incredible experience thus far on my mission. Jake showed up to church yesterday with the biggest smile on his face- it didn't take long to notice the gages in his ears were no longer there. I almost jumped up and down in the chapel with joy. He told us that it was our surprise on his baptism :) It is those little things that show to me that he is on the road to conversion, the fact that he is willing to take out his earrings... such a little thing but shows so much obedience! During sacrament meeting Winnie kept leaning over to me asking if she could just get baptized now... lets just say my cheeks started to hurt from smiling so much!
The rest of church seemed to drag on for.ev.er! Finally though we said the closing prayer in relief society. We rushed Winnie and Jake off so that they could get changed and waited as patiently as we could for everything to get settled. Winnie was jumping off the walls with excitement and Jake had a perma smile on :D
->fast forward to the baptisms
Jake was baptized first. He entered into the waters and when he came back out... oh man if you could have only seen the look on his face. It took him a moment to find his strength and then he just stood there in the water with a look, not of shock, but I can't think of another word to describe it.... it was almost as if he was feeling his baptism... After a few seconds he had once again the biggest smile on his face and then got out of the water. Then Winnie got her chance next. As she came out of the water she took a few seconds and then shook herself off like a dog. Oh how I love her :)
After the actual baptism all of us missionaries sang Come Thou Fount (that was a good one ;)) and then Jake and Winnie got up to bear their testimonies. Oh my goodness. I almost started to cry.
Jake got up there and the first thing he said was that a few weeks ago he never thought in a million years he would be up here haha! But then he went on to talk about how the spirit was what kept making him want to come back to church, it was all the kind faces and warmth that he felt when he came to church. Latter on he described what it felt like to be baptized and used the word clarity. After he came out of the water everything was so clear. Any questions, doubts, fears all melted away. He felt joy and peace that this was right. Then he started to tear up.... oh my gosh... the change in him is incredible! Winnie also had a heartfelt testimony where she described how much happiness she has been able to find in this gospel and in knowing God. She also quoted president Uchdorf! WHAT WHAT! Once again we have the sweetest investigators! I am so excited to see what God will do with her! She will bring so many people joy just with her smile :D
The good news doesn't stop here either! Later that night all the YSA had a big old pot luck where Dieter stood up in front of everyone and asked Jake if he would do the honours of baptizing him....... AHHHHHHHHH!!!! Oh my goodness! and if that's not enough Jake will be known as Elder Kilcollins (sweetest last name ever!) in just a short year :D that's right! Jake has decided to serve a mission AND he will be using his priesthood just a week after receiving it to perform his FIRST baptism! BAH!
The joy I have received from serving in Kingston YSA is like no other joy I have ever felt. All of the YSA hold a dear place in my heart. We have all come so close together in these past 9 weeks. To see the growth that has taken place has been such a blessing for me. It is a testimony to me that this really is our Father in Heavens work and nothing can stop it.
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| Our little YSA family:) |
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| Winnie, Rachel (has a heart of gold and a way with investigators that makes them feel so welcome!), sis Laing, Taylor (Jakes friend who introduced him to the church), me, and Steph (she has saved us countless times in lessons with her amazing testimony AND she is the one going on a mission!!!) |
I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a tool in the Lords hand and can testify that no greater joy can come than being in the service of God!
I love you all and thank you all for the emails and letters and packages!
Quote Of The Week:
Elder Snelson: "We recorded ourselves singing this morning in companionship study.... we are going to ruin this baptism."
A haiku for you:
Oh the joy
That this sentence brings
He lives
Scripture of the Week: D&C 18: 10 & 15-16
"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;...
And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will by your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"
Sister Hall
Y.O.S.O <3
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| Jake and Winnie just this last Sunday! |
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