August 24, 2015 "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel"

Hello Starshine! The Earth says "Hello"!

So this past week has been crazy in lots of different ways. First off was the baptism of A*** and A*** I was able to help their mother, J***, join the church a few weeks before I left Morrilton, and then late last Wednesday night I got a call out of the blue from the Zone Leaders saying I could go to the baptism. Here's a little bit of how the conversation went:

Me- "This is Elder Barker"

Him- "Hey, this is Elder so-and-so. President asked me to tell you that you are good to go to the baptism provided you could find a ride!"

Me- <Silence as I try to figure out what he was talking about> "What baptism?"

Him- "The one of those two people you taught!"

Me- <Still greater confusion> "I've got no clue who you are talking about..."

Him- "Some woman's daughters, Janice, Stacy-"

Me- "J***?!?"

Him- "Yeah, that's her!"

Me- *Shout of excitement* *Mumbled apology for startling the driver*

So yeah, nobody told me that they were going to be baptized until they called me, and even then it was the Morrilton Sisters who called me to let me know the next day. Elder Thomas, my old companion, didn't mention it until I called him (the punk!) Lol. The baptism was so awesome though! It took up almost the entire Saturday, but every baptism is worth a 3+ hour drive in my book! We didn't get back until about 11 pm, and we just crashed at the other English Elder's apartment. Elder Hamblin and I got to talking about philosophy, psychology, and how it all ties into religion, for a good 3 or so hours. What with the little bit of conversation between the four of us preceeding it, I didn't get to bed until about 3.30 am. I suffered the next day, but it was a really good conversation! 

The district is really crazy and fun. We have Elder Hamblin, who has 3 months left and is the DL, and his companion Elder Croft, who is 3 months out. There are also two Spanish speaking elders, Elder Geddes (about a year), and Elder Ceron, who is brand new and from Mexico. Then there's me at 19 months and Elder Price (11 months). 

Going back to this week being crazy, we had a meeting in NLR on Wednesday, spent the majority of Tuesday and Thursday trying to find people to teach, went and taught some of the people we found the previous few days on Friday, and the baptism in Morrilton on Saturday. Lots of people who really didn't want anything to do with us, and a few people that loved talking with us. 

I would say more, but I am out of time. I had it pointed out to me the other day that I have a little over 5 months left. I'm going to make the most of them!

~Elder Barker