Hola Familia y Amigos!
Well, this week has been great! Francisco and Elizabeth both were able
to overcome their concerns and challenges and were baptized on
Saturday with another family of 4 (the Fonseca family) and then
confirmed on Sunday!! It was such a great baptismal service and
confirmation and we all feel so blessed to have been a part of it.
Elizabeth asked me to baptize her and Francisco asked Elder Grisham to
baptize him. And Elizabeth asked Elder Nicholas to confirm her while
Francisco asked our branch mission leader to confirm him. It was all
super good. It was crazy having 6 baptisms and confirmations in the
branch at the same time though! It took a long time to do the
confirmations. We started Sacrament Meeting at 12:10 and we ended the
confirmations at 12:50!! Obviously the confirmations weren't the only
thing, there was a song and prayer and announcements, but still. Then
we still had to take the Sacrament and have the high council speaker
and a missionary homecoming (sort of, she's back early for medical
reason). So we ended like 20 minutes late yesterday! But I didn't mind
at all, although I'm sure the kids (and their anxious parents) did :).
Also I have to tell y'all about the joke/prank Francisco played on me.
So we were waiting for them to come to the classes at 10:20 and it was
time to start and they weren't there. So we decided to call just to
make sure they were on their way and everything was alright. So I
call. Francisco picks up the phone and I ask him if they're on their
way. He says, "Ohh... we have a party we totally forgot about. We
aren't going to be able to make it until 12:30." As I'm sure you can
imagine, I started freaking out a little. They had to get confirmed! I
told Francisco, "you have to be there at least at 12." And I start
nervously pacing outside, frustrated, scared, mad, anxious, and about
every sickening feeling you could have. After a few moments Francisco
starts saying, "Elder Whitaker, where are you, where are you?" I was
about to tell him, "At the Church, waiting for you!" when I turned
around towards the parking lot to see Francisco and his family pulling
up in their car! That moment was probably one of the biggest feelings
of relief that I could have ever had. I must admit that Francisco
really got me good with that one, and it's a good thing he played the
joke on me and not on someone that might have gotten more upset! We
had a good laugh about it and I thought y'all would enjoy hearing
about it.
Well, that's the main news for the week! I'm super excited for
Brendan's call to come, and I mostly don't really care where it is he
goes, I mostly care about when he goes! (Hopefully at a time I can see
him at least briefly!) But I'll try to get up a good guess for him. Is
he doing a one stateside guess, one foreign guess thing?
I love y'all and hope this week is tons of fun!
-Elder Whitaker
Well, this week has been great! Francisco and Elizabeth both were able
to overcome their concerns and challenges and were baptized on
Saturday with another family of 4 (the Fonseca family) and then
confirmed on Sunday!! It was such a great baptismal service and
confirmation and we all feel so blessed to have been a part of it.
Elizabeth asked me to baptize her and Francisco asked Elder Grisham to
baptize him. And Elizabeth asked Elder Nicholas to confirm her while
Francisco asked our branch mission leader to confirm him. It was all
super good. It was crazy having 6 baptisms and confirmations in the
branch at the same time though! It took a long time to do the
confirmations. We started Sacrament Meeting at 12:10 and we ended the
confirmations at 12:50!! Obviously the confirmations weren't the only
thing, there was a song and prayer and announcements, but still. Then
we still had to take the Sacrament and have the high council speaker
and a missionary homecoming (sort of, she's back early for medical
reason). So we ended like 20 minutes late yesterday! But I didn't mind
at all, although I'm sure the kids (and their anxious parents) did :).
Also I have to tell y'all about the joke/prank Francisco played on me.
So we were waiting for them to come to the classes at 10:20 and it was
time to start and they weren't there. So we decided to call just to
make sure they were on their way and everything was alright. So I
call. Francisco picks up the phone and I ask him if they're on their
way. He says, "Ohh... we have a party we totally forgot about. We
aren't going to be able to make it until 12:30." As I'm sure you can
imagine, I started freaking out a little. They had to get confirmed! I
told Francisco, "you have to be there at least at 12." And I start
nervously pacing outside, frustrated, scared, mad, anxious, and about
every sickening feeling you could have. After a few moments Francisco
starts saying, "Elder Whitaker, where are you, where are you?" I was
about to tell him, "At the Church, waiting for you!" when I turned
around towards the parking lot to see Francisco and his family pulling
up in their car! That moment was probably one of the biggest feelings
of relief that I could have ever had. I must admit that Francisco
really got me good with that one, and it's a good thing he played the
joke on me and not on someone that might have gotten more upset! We
had a good laugh about it and I thought y'all would enjoy hearing
about it.
Well, that's the main news for the week! I'm super excited for
Brendan's call to come, and I mostly don't really care where it is he
goes, I mostly care about when he goes! (Hopefully at a time I can see
him at least briefly!) But I'll try to get up a good guess for him. Is
he doing a one stateside guess, one foreign guess thing?
I love y'all and hope this week is tons of fun!
-Elder Whitaker