Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Baptisms


Well, I talked to you yesterday.

I went to the bait&tackle shop this morning and got some stuff to fish with for an actual birthday present (not little ceasar's).  And I went fishing in the lake by our house.  we didn't have a whole lot of time though so I didn't catch anything...Here's some christmas pictures!

Love,

Elder Fine







Birthday Celebrations (Brandon's, Mom's and Jesus')

Hello!

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do for my birthday.  It should be fun.  We have mission conference on the 22nd and then we might be doing a massive service project combined with the Miami Rescue Mission on the 23rd.  We have Church at the same time :) yours is at 9, mine is at 11, you're two hours earlier...I think that's what you meant...oh well.  we'll be staying after for a baptism so we'll probably be back around 1:30 :) We're going to the Mundell's for Christmas and we'll be skyping there.  I guess I'll call you before I sign on just to make sure you're signed on.  Sister Mundell is the primary president and brother mundell is on the high council.  They're great.  We went over yesterday and had corned beef and key lime pie.

I sent Ethan's present this morning...hopefully it gets there by the end of this week.  If not, then blame the United States Postal Service because I think a week is plenty of time.  I got permission from President Anderson to use BYU's website but it's not very helpful.  You can go ahead and do any necessary research and we'll talk about it on Sunday...I've only got 35 minutes though so efficiency will be key.  If it's too much hassel, just get me a spot in wyview for Fall Semester.  It's cheap and acceptable for a returned missionary to live there, and I promise I won't date 18-year-olds.  Oh, and para que sepan (FYI), I'm coming home on the 9th of August...I'm not sure if I ever told you that, but I checked the board again and that's the group they put me in, meaning I'll have very little time before school starts.

I'm playing the accompaniament to "Santa La Noche" (O Holy Night) in mission conference while the Homestead Zone sings it.  It's not too difficult but time and pianos are scarce so I don't get to practice much.  I frequently substitute play in sacrament meeting as well when sister brown is sick/out of town.

Story time!  We were riding our bicycles and a man waved us over and we went over to talk to him.  "Hello" he said "my name is Terry Cox." Terry Cox explained that he had been taught in Atlanta a year ago and attended church and had a baptismal date and everything.  He further astonished us by his incredible knowledge of the gospel and immediate desire to attend the church here and be baptized.  He explained that he had not been baptized a year ago because he had word of wisdom issues that he was dealing with and he was not ready.  So, in a nutshell we found a man who had been taught all the lessons, was living the required commandments, and had attended church several times, and wanted to be baptized......yeah.

When I was in the MTC, Brother Hunt told the class that we would find people on our missions who would in fact, though on rare occasion, say "Hello, I'm ready, please baptize me now" and I inwardly chuckled thinking how nice it would be if that were true.  Well, I guess it's true.  And it's kind of nice since one of our investigators that really wants to be baptized is moving to Georgia soon and can't be baptized before she leaves because she is still living with her boyfriend.

Merry Christmas!  Happy Birthday Mom! and have a wonderful, wonderful week.

Elder Fine