Ah, the official Chestermere “birds” sounds like they are out in full force. Sometimes I forget how much I hate Calgary in the summer, not only due to the mosquitoes but also the schizophrenic weather changes from day to day. But maybe I would even take those right now. Since I’ve been in Pennsylvania, it’s been nothing but rain and minute bursts of sunshine. But I know as soon as the 90+ weather will hit in a couple weeks, I am going to be complaining all over again. Maybe I need to live in a place with a constant climate, then I can accept the weather after about a year and hopefully be satisfied once and for all.
Well for some reason I’m still here. There have been billboards up in Pennsylvania for the last couple months, sharing of a “prophet” who predicted the end of the world to be May 21st, 2011 at 6:00pm. Wait a second. That was two days ago. Shouldn’t the world be ended and stuff? The sickening thing about this scheme is that some people actually bought into it. Jobs were quit, money thrown away, and I’m just glad I wasn’t out on the street to see the chaos of the people. When will people understand that the Lord will come as a thief in the night? And that there are several prophecies that need to be fulfilled before that even begins to happen? You would think that that bust would have people flocking toward us to be baptized because of the supposed Armageddon, but actually it’s kind of the opposite. People have come up to us, demanding of what our prophet says concerning the end of the world, creating an even more stiffneckedness in the people of our area.
On Friday, actually a couple of girls started talking to US (this may not seem like a big deal, but most people avoid us at all costs), complimenting my sunglasses, and asking us to teach them. Not knowing anything about what religion we even shared about we set up an appointment and have taught them two lessons since then. They’ve committed to be baptized, though I’m still not sure how converted they are, as they didn’t show up to church yesterday. Elder Zaleski has shared a little bit of his wisdom concerning the subject as one lady he baptized actually asked him to marry her. Because of some of these girls’ comments, I’m just hoping that they’re into what we discussing and not into us.
This weekend has probably been one of the most stressful of my life. You may remember me talking about the baptism that we were going to have on Saturday. Reading that sentence over, it kind of sounds like it didn’t happen. But it did! Dakoda, our 9-year-old investigator was baptized at 6:00 on May 21st. Kind of weird huh? But despite this joyous occasion of the first baptism I’ve been a part of, I would be surprised if the events leading up and following the service didn’t give me any grey hairs.
We attended our Zone Conference on Friday in State College, receiving excellent advice from both mission leader and general authority alike. And I think I got the most compliments on my tie I think I’ve ever gotten in my whole life. It’s purple. It’s like none of the other elders have ever seen a skinny (not really skinny though, I left all my really skinny ties at home) purple tie before. It was kind of weird. I got a chance just before I left to talk to President Summerhays and his wife. They kept expressing how happy they were that I was here and serving. I know that might not sound like much, but it felt really good to hear that I was needed. I felt like for the first time I’m in the right place at the right time.
This is what stressed me out. Dakoda asked me right after her baptism to confirm her on Sunday. I felt like I couldn’t say no, especially to her, but honestly I didn’t feel ready at all. I know that my words are supposed to be guided by the Spirit, but when I feel the Holy Ghost, it’s less of a voice and more of a feeling. How do I decipher a warm feeling into fluid speech? To say the least, Saturday night was sleepless and full of frantic prayer. To this day I still don’t know if I really was the one who should’ve given Dakoda’s confirmation, but as I sat down at the sacrament bench following the blessing, I looked back at Dakoda smiling sweetly, leaning under her mother’s arm. And catching her eyes full of tears, her mom mouthed the words “thank you” to me and I felt an overwhelming feeling of love toward them. Maybe it was all worth it after all.
Elder Low
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