In the strength of the Lord, I can do ALL things : Week 69 (7/28/14)

THAT'S RIGHT!

NATHANIEL GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!

Or should I say, Brother Smith.

Ah. That sounds awesome.

It's been a pretty crazy INSANE week getting everything organized. I learned from David's baptism how important the environment is for the baptism. Even though the font was in the gym at Tampa we made sure that we could still feel the spirit easily... even if that meant bringing all the soft chairs from the Relief Society room in there...

So of course we dragged the huge filing cabinet from the font room here and switched pianos and took down all the stuff off the bulletin board. We even threw a couple plants around the room. It was awesome! The spirit was SO strong at the baptism. We had OVER 50 people there! There wasn't even enough chairs! You could literally feel the love pouring out of the room.

While he was getting dressed we had everyone write him a little note on a note card telling him how they felt or telling him welcome. HE LOVED IT! I mean, he can't read, but still! We are going to read them all to him tomorrow. But it was like Christmas for him! The Leicht family has been doing SO good at fellow shipping him! They LOVE him and he adores them!

He was beaming after he was baptized! We had a white shirt for him, but he came out throwing his hands up in the hair with a huge grin on his face wearing his shinny purple shirt.

IT WAS AWESOME!

I played an arrangement of Joseph Smith's first prayer and my Praise to the Man song for him right after he was baptized and he LOVED it! He appreciates music so I thought that's he'd like it. It brought the spirit even stronger and he said, "Ah! There's the knot in my throat again!" Hahaha.

Yeah. It's the spirit.

Afterwords he came up to Sister Gustafson and I and just looked real serious at us and said, "thank you so much." He was so sincere! He's usually a pretty crazy guy so it was pretty touching to see him so thankful for everything and so thankful that we found him.

The thing that stuck out to me the most that he said afterwords was- "I never knew I could feel so loved"

I know that I've said it a million times, but REALLY! That is what we were going for, and that's what investigators should feel the moment they walk into a church building.

This is what it's all about! His testimony will continue to grow, but he will remember most the strong spirit and love that he felt that day. It was almost overwhelming and so happy! :D

It's been one amazing week and I couldn't be more thankful to my Heavenly Father for letting me take part in this work. This gospel truly does bring me so true joy! I know it's true with all my heart :)

Love, Sister Calder

The longest P.S. of your life...

Oh, here's some hilarious things from this week.

I must be serving in a foreign country because we opened cans without a can opener or anything on Monday! We were eating at the Leichts and theirs wasn't working so we went boy scout style so Kevin and I rubbed them on the cement until they opened haha. I feel pretty legit now.

We also had a huge BBQ at Hammock State Park! It was a blast! I was sweating buckets from running around playing soccer and swords with noodles with the kids. It was a BLAST. We also went hunting for alligators in the middle of a swamp! It was like dead silent and we were walking over the water on these 4 pieces of wood.. Pretty fun but freaky!

Here's the best part.

I had my first real life snow cone in 16 months. Longer actually because I didn't have one all winter when I was home... like 2 years! Talk about withdraw. But a man that used to be in our ward has an ice cream truck that he drove into our ward party in the middle of the forest! And of course... HE HAD REAL LIFE SNOW CONES!

Ah.

Cotton Candy of course.

And the baptism just happened to be this day as well.

Best.

Day.

Ever.

My life is complete and I could probably die right now and be completely happy :)

P.S.S. The pic of him holding his hands out like Jesus is not meant to be sac religious… ha