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| This picture is priceless. :) Cute Chelsea Boyson's baptism. |
Family!
Well,
it's been a good week up in the North! It was kind of a hectic week,
but it concluded with Chelsea Boyson's baptism, which was just a blessed
and beautiful thing. From the beginning, Chelsea has been very prepared
for baptism, and has just always had a strong desire to be baptized.
Her service was right after church, and she was very excited the entire
day.
But... over the course of the week, it felt like there was opposition from every possible source of opposition to prevent her from being baptized! The original plan was to have Chelsea baptized on the 27th, and then confirmed the next day on the 28th. But, our branch president just was... not too keen on having two baptismal services on two Saturdays in a row. In fact, he was very strangely opposed to it. With convert baptisms, you need to be confirmed in Sacrament meeting, So, we had to reschedule it so that she was going to be baptized on the 28th, and then confirmed the next Sunday. But, they found out they were going to be out of town the next Sunday, and it's just not ideal to have somebody baptized and not receive the Holy Ghost for 2-3 weeks. So, we were in kind of a pickle, until President Tilleman authorized confirming her at her baptismal service. So, we did that. And then in the middle of the night we get some angsty text messages from an unknown number (...which is just no doubt Sister Boyson) telling us that we are not to come to her house again and "requesting" that we stop teaching her children the doctrines of Satan. Pleasant text to wake up to. In years previous, Sis. Boyson had snuck Chelsea out underneath Bro. Boyson's nose and had her baptized in the church that she goes to, and so Bro. Boyson is very insistent on letting Chelsea be baptized into another church if that's what she chooses. So, even though she started making a fuss, fortunately it was ignored. After they had the argument, we were talking with Bro. Boyson, and the conversation kind of went like this:
But... over the course of the week, it felt like there was opposition from every possible source of opposition to prevent her from being baptized! The original plan was to have Chelsea baptized on the 27th, and then confirmed the next day on the 28th. But, our branch president just was... not too keen on having two baptismal services on two Saturdays in a row. In fact, he was very strangely opposed to it. With convert baptisms, you need to be confirmed in Sacrament meeting, So, we had to reschedule it so that she was going to be baptized on the 28th, and then confirmed the next Sunday. But, they found out they were going to be out of town the next Sunday, and it's just not ideal to have somebody baptized and not receive the Holy Ghost for 2-3 weeks. So, we were in kind of a pickle, until President Tilleman authorized confirming her at her baptismal service. So, we did that. And then in the middle of the night we get some angsty text messages from an unknown number (...which is just no doubt Sister Boyson) telling us that we are not to come to her house again and "requesting" that we stop teaching her children the doctrines of Satan. Pleasant text to wake up to. In years previous, Sis. Boyson had snuck Chelsea out underneath Bro. Boyson's nose and had her baptized in the church that she goes to, and so Bro. Boyson is very insistent on letting Chelsea be baptized into another church if that's what she chooses. So, even though she started making a fuss, fortunately it was ignored. After they had the argument, we were talking with Bro. Boyson, and the conversation kind of went like this:
Bro. Boyson: "She said our church is evil because the Bible teaches there can't be another book. Is that what the Bible says?"
Us: "No, Brother Boyson. The Bible does not say that. Would you like us to show you what she was probably talking about?"
Bro. Boyson: "No, I was just making sure."
And
then we were good. But you know, at the end of the week, because the
Lord's hand was very firmly guiding the situation, Chelsea was able to
be baptized!
Other than that, we
did have a few miracles this week! First, the Prince Rupert family that I
mentioned previously that had the missionaries knock on her door as she
was praying got baptized! Secondly, this week I was on exchanges in
Terrace, when we had the chance to help a guy take out his garbage. As
we were doing so, he asked us if we knew Romans 10:9-10. I did, because,
well, it's a funny one to quote imitating a Baptist preacher. In short,
he first seemed like he was going to want to bash with us, but his
heart slowly softened, and by the end, he was very open to what we
believed. He said he originally thought we were in a cult, but now he
thinks that maybe running into us was why "the Holy Spirit has been
telling me to find a church to go to". Anyways, the next morning, he
calls, and begins talking about how he "is a pundit" for the gathering
of Israel, and how he found what Nephi prophesied about the gathering of
Israel very interesting ("Isaiah hints at this sort of stuff, but this
Nephi character is very adamant"). He starts saying a whole bunch of
scholarly sounding things that we weren't even following. We weren't
even sure if he thought it was good or bad or not. But, at the end, he
was like, "when was this book written?" And we told him it was
translated in the 1830s. He was floored. He told us that he couldn't
believe how many years ahead of its time the Book of Mormon was, and how
there was only one other religious group that he knew of that also
correctly predicted whatever aspects of the gathering of Israel that
Nephi was talking about. And now, he wants to be baptized! We were just
relieved that he liked whatever it was that he was talking about. Pretty
awesome stuff.
Well, the church is true and the book is blue! I'm just getting booted off of my computer at the library, but have a great week, everyone!
Well, the church is true and the book is blue! I'm just getting booted off of my computer at the library, but have a great week, everyone!
Elder Blotter
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