Missionary Monday - Week 13 in Marshall

I was stressin all week about Gary and Leah, but the baptisms were great! Both of their families came and there were plenty of members that brought food. The water wasn't as radioactive as it looks in the picture, but it was pretty green. I was told that it was because the water softener isn't working. Gary went first and he went down like a rock. I didn't let him hit the bottom, but he was pretty close. I got my whole arm under him to pull him back up, but he still couldn't get his feet underneath him so I had to get behind him and wrap my arms around him and stand him up. Everything went smooth with Leah. Her autistic son was worried about it though. He was convinced we were going to drown her. He told me I better watch myself because he knows karate and he's not afraid to karate chop somebody! Ha ha. So they were both baptized and when I was about to leave the font I realized that I didn't bring an extra white shirt... or underwear. Rookie mistake. Sis Ruz ran home and got me one of Bro Ruz's shirts, but I didn't tell anyone I forgot undies so I may or may not have been commando for the remainder of the service. So other than that things were good. We learned from Murray's baptism that the people get a little restless while they change so we had Mormon Messages playing this time and that worked great.

After the baptisms we went to help the Daileys move a dryer from their neighbors house to theirs. It was supposed to just be a dryer, but it was one of the ones that had the dryer on top of the washer and they didn't come apart. So that sucked, but the worst part was that the house we pulled it out of was the smelliest place I have ever been. And I've been in some smelly places here. But this house was so bad. The lady that lived there had a million cats that didn't get taken care of very well. It took us forever to get it out of there because the house was old and small and the lady was boarder line hoarder so there was crap everywhere. 

Gary was confirmed no problem, but 15 minutes into the service there was still no Leah. Me and Elder Finlayson were trippin pretty hard, but she got there just in time. It would have been the worst thing ever. Her son has a hard time with crowds, so getting him to come was what held her up. Elder Finlayson confirmed them both and did a great job. They gave Gary the Aaronic Priesthood during the second hour, but those dirtbags did it without us. They had basically no hand in his conversion and they did it without us! They have done a fantastic job fellowshipping them so far though so I don't have too much anxiety about that anymore. The Branch is super stoked about missionary work now too so we are going to try to milk the most out of that as we can because we don't have anyone to teach anymore. No one with a lot of potential anyway. President Peterson is tickled to death by these two baptisms. He said a few months ago they bought a bunch of baptismal suits on faith. We told him that we don't have anyone to teach anymore and he said he would take care of that for us. So hopefully they will walk the walk now. I'm pretty sure I'll be here for a while longer because the government shut down means Visas aren't being worked on so if they don't find us some people there will be a significant rebuke coming from Elder Beck.

Have a great week! 

Elder Beck