Baptisms and Italians

So this week was pretty meh, not much exciting happened.

NOT. It was like the best week ever. RAY IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I don't usually use multiple exclamation points. You should take that for a testament to how excited I really am.)

It started on Tuesday. We had a lesson that did not start out very well; Ray had been talking to a former preacher at another church who had been telling him stories about Joseph Smith. Luckily Ray wasn't very inclined to listen to him, but we were still not sure where the rest of the lesson was going to go. We ended up just reading 1 Nephi Chapter 1 with him to hopefully get him to be more excited about the Book of Mormon. Then we kept chatting and he told us that his boss at work, who is a recent convert, asked him when he is getting baptized and who is baptizing him. Ray was a little leery of that, but it has really got him thinking. He thought it was really nice that his boss would want to be there when he got baptized then asked us, "Are you two going to be there?" Sister Payne and I looked at each other. "Well, if you get baptized before the transfer ends, then definitely. The transfer ends on December 16. That means December 13th is a Saturday. ...do you want to be baptized on December 13th?" He thought for a minute. "Yes." We couldn't believe it, we had to double check. "You're going to gt baptized on December 13th?" "Yes, I am." "How do you feel about that?" "Kinda tingly." That's totally the Spirit!

We had to hold it until we got to the car to really let out how excited we were that he said that. The rest of the week was great on his part; we went to Temple Square with him and a member on Saturday and watched the Joseph Smith movie, which he really loved, and then on Sunday morning we got a text from the Ward Mission Leader saying that Ray has asked Bob, a recent convert and one of Ray's best friends in the Trailer Park, to baptize him. This is going to get Bob on track, Ray and Bob are going to stop smoking together, then Sharon in the trailer park will want to get baptized too, then Ed Ray's best friend will come along as well, and we'll all end up going to the Celestial Kingdom together like one big happy Trailer Park family.

Or something like that. Miracles happen! (as evidenced by Ray's baptismal date.)

So in conclusion, that made it a really great week. Other good things include an entire Less Active family being at church all together, the YSA ward getting really pumped up about all of their new ward missionaries (including putting them into companionships and telling them they need to live the mission rules as best they can. The companionships all include a boy and a girl so I'm not sure how well that's going to work out and whether this might just be a ploy to get them all married but whatevs), and getting to go through the Salt Lake Temple for my very first time this morning! It was really wonderful. All temples are beautiful, but the workmanship inside the Salt Lake Temple is just stunning. Do you think someday they'll let me explore the whole thing? Maybe if my husband ends up a General Authority. I'm going to start working on that.

Hmmm what else. Oh, funny moment. We saw a lady walking alone along the street and I felt like we should stop and talk to her. I'm a missionary and am trying to learn to follow those promptings so we pulled up alongside her (probably should have gotten out of the car, we may have looked a little creepy), rolled down the window, and said hi. *thoughts are in asterisks*

Me: Hello! How are you?

Her: Comesta? 

Me: *Oh, she's Spanish. I'm going to pull out the ten words of Spanish I know and try not to speak Chinese.* Bien! E tu?

Her: Bene! Balahbldfrhssdgnsjkdghioh amore anjsfgjbloaerbpsdinrhug.

Me: ....oh. *why did I do that. I don't speak Spanish. She obviously doesn't speak English. She said "amor" is she trying to tell me I'm lovely? Probably not. uhh... ni hao ma? no.* Como esta? *really? That's all you can come up with?* uhh... no hablo Espanol.

Her: No habla? Blaifoghsmksdgpaemrhle amore bnsdoroagollea.

Me: *She said amore again. Wait a second, I don't think she's speaking Spanish. It sounds like Italian. Wait! I know some Italian! I know how to say "I understand a little Italian"! ...That's all I can say. That would not be helpful. Just deceptive.* Uhh... espanol or Italiano?

Her: Italiano! bosdghmk ciao rmppolella. 

Me: ....molto bene!

Her: Ciao!

Me: Ciao! (she walks away and we drive off)

Both me and Sister Payne: What just happened?

In conclusion, I don't speak Spanish or Italian and should probably stick to Chinese.

In actual conclusion to this letter, missions are great. The work is wonderful. People should go to church. People should pray every day. God loves you.

Love, 

Sister Cardon