Baptism in Arkansas

Justin had a great week this past week, including seeing one of the people he was working with come in to the Gospel of Jesus Christ! This guy is moving to the city right next to us, though. It'll be cool to meet him!!!

Hey everybody! Sounds like ya’ll had an awesome time in Fremont last week! It’s always so much fun going out there. I hope the weather got a little nicer. It was nice here for a little while, but then all of a sudden it dropped like crazy! We had actually had a little bit of snow on Saturday morning! It was insane! This was a crazy weather week. A couple nights before, on Thursday, we had the most intense lightning storm. It was awesome. I LOVE the lightning. We’ve actually had much more lightning then what we got Thursday night, but as far as how hard it was raining it was one of the worst we’ve had yet. It was really coming down hard. There was a heck of a lot of lightning, too. Not as bad as some of the nights when we get so much lightning that it just never gets dark, but there was still a lot. I just love these storms out here! But now it’s nice and sunny again. For now, anyway. Arkansas weather is even more fickle than Boise’s. I love it though. I really really love Arkansas. I wouldn’t want to raise a family here because the school system is awful (because this area is so poverty stricken) but other than that I would love living down here. Speaking of poverty, you are right Dad right now it is such a major blessing to have such a great job right now. I don’t think you could ask for anything better right now, which is awesome considering how the economy is right now. It’s kind of cool because obviously the economy sucks down here, too, and there are a lot of people out of work. But you’d be surprised how many times we’ve started to teach someone who tells us they have been out of work for months and can’t find a job anywhere, but then find one as soon as they start to meet with us. So many times we’ve seen people in that state but every single time they are interested and invite us back, by the time we return for our second appointment they’ve found work, often times jobs have just dropped right into their laps. It’s amazing how many ways the gospel can bless our lives.

As far as our week, it was amazing! Francis Estrada finally got baptized!

Brother Booth, Francis, Bishop Scott

Me, Francis and E. Simakov

It didn’t happen last week because several people were going to be out of town so he decided to push it back a week. Normally that would be fine, but Francis faced some challenges. So he set up a meeting with the Bishop Saturday at noon (the baptism was scheduled for 2:30). They were in that meeting until like 2:40! Everyone was just sitting there waiting for it to start for about 10 minutes when they finally came out, all smiles, and went in for the baptism. We were talking to Bishop Scott afterwards, and he said that up until about 2 minutes before they came out, he honestly didn’t think Francis was going to end up getting baptized. I don’t know what all they talked about, but finally, at like 2:35, they knelt down right there in the Bishop’s office and prayed. First Bishop prayed, then Francis prayed. He said that Francis prayed in Spanish, so he has no idea what was said, but he said that the Spirit was very very strong. When Francis finished praying he just looked up and said, with tears in his eyes, “I’m ready.” So then we baptized him! It was awesome. I was so happy to finally see that happen. It was amazing how happy he was, too. He knew he made the right decision. Or course, as our converts always seem to do, he’s moving to Idaho on Friday. At least he’s moving to Meridian so it’s not like I’ll never see him again. It still sucks though. Especially for the ward. They get so excited for all the growth that they so badly need but then everybody we baptize moves out! We’ve got a lot of good work going on right now, though, and hopefully everyone else we’re working with will stay here. I really hope so. We have a ton of people we’re teaching that could be progressing right now. It’s nice cuz this week is conference so they’ll all have 4 opportunities to come to church. No excuses now… I’m so excited for General Conference! My first one as a missionary! I can’t wait, I’m getting SO pumped. Btw speaking of conference mom could you send me the last couple conference reports? No hurry, just whenever you send another next package. Thanks. (speaking of packages, thank you so much for those thin mints!!! They were so delicious!!!) Not too much else exciting happened this week. Oh except that we got a new car! It’s a 2009 Malibu! SOOOO nice! I love our new car. According to the Assistants it’s one of the nicest in the mission. Well I’d say more, but the internet here at the library sucks, so I’ll need the entire 5 minutes that we have remaining just to send this email… Love you!

Francis Estrada