So this week was great! Marisa was baptized yesterday and I had the privelage of baptizing her. The service was awesome and we had 3 of our investigators there too. She was so happy! The jumpsuit she had to wear was gigantic on her and it was super funny. She had to wear it because we didn't have any other suits! She thought it was funny too though and she went along with it. She is awesome and I'm so happy we've been able to teach her. I really want to teach her son, Isaiah because he is one of my favorite kids I've met on the mission. He calls me his big brother and Marisa always tells me I'm her adopted son. Her and Isaiah are characters! They are just so happy and funny, yet they have nothing, their apartment is infested with bed bugs, and they serve their neighbors like crazy! It's so amazing to see the gospel work in people. She has changed so much! Isaiah even changed a ton, and we haven't even taught him. The actual baptismal service started at 3:00 yesterday. Marisa showed up at 2:45 and didn't change into her suit until 3:00 so we didn't get to take pictures until after the baptism. The suit she wore was a xxxxl so she had to role up the pants a lot. She was laughing about it though. I felt bad after the actual ordinance because the water was cold! Marisa was shivering for the rest of the service, but she took it like a champ! Bro. Meza spoke on the Holy Ghost and actually did really well! I really liked his talk. So all in all, the baptism was awesome!
Our other investigators are doing ok. Our biggest progress right now is our investigator Melissa. We've been teaching her a lot over the past two weeks and she's been keeping her commitments, besides coming to church, but she came to the baptism yesterday and brought her mom with her. Both of them loved it! We're pretty sure Melissa knows the church is true. We've been teaching her like 3 times a week and she is continuing to read the Book of Mormon. She's awesome, but she's scared of change. She always tells us that she loves meeting with us. We haven't taught her family yet, so it was awesome that her mom came to the baptism. Hopefully we can teach the whole family next time. They're Catholic and have always been catholic, but they're softening up. She's awesome. She's in her 20's and goes to CSUN. We also taught the Sierra and Molly Dawes 3 times this week as well. Sierra really wants to be baptized and she's understanding everything so much better than when we first started teaching her. She and Molly are doing well, but their parents are not. They literally hate each other, and the mom has a restraining order on the dad. The girls go to church with their dad sometimes in Long Beach though so that's good. The mom won't come to church though. That family has a lot of bad history in the ward and the bishop sat down with us yesterday after ward council and told us his viewpoint on the whole situation. He's worked with them for years now and he basically told us that we need to pray about the whole situation with the kids, because Brandy, (the mom) doesn't care about the gospel. It was interesting. I can see that she doesn't care, but we're not teaching the girls for the moms sake. I've really grown to love those girls, even if their parents don't care. We prayed about it and got the prompting to continue teaching them, but we're not going to teach them as much as we used to. Just once a week. We've almost taught them everything and they are ready for baptism. That would be very complicated with the parents and their situation though. There is a lot that goes into it that would take to long to write out, but I just want those girls to have a better life. The mom is willing to let them go to church on their own if they get a ride and we can get them a ride. We brought it up in ward council and the bishop and everyone said that they can't take care of an extra 9 and 7 year old for 3 hrs. I'll take care of them if no one else will! They are crazy, but I know how to keep them under control! I don't understand, but hopefully everything will work out. We're still teaching them for a reason. James and Matthew came to church on Sunday and went to the baptism as well. James is still not all there. Matthew has been sober for 9 days now so that's good. He's still in the same rut though. We found some other pretty cool new investigators this week too. Other than that, the work here is moving forward. Elder Baughan and I are working well together. I think I might stay here for 6 months again. I don't know why, but I just get that feeling. I'd be ok with that though. I'm starting to like the area more and more, which sucks because its going to make it harder to leave when I do get transferred. Well, I love you all! Thanks for everything! Study Preach My Gospel! It's awesome!
Elder Nelson
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