First baptism

The San Diego temple was absolutely amazing. And I won't be able to go until the beginning of December. I've got quite a few pictures of the temple, some of which were during sunset. I'll be sending my SD card in the mail today. And yes, I sent the postcards. I thought they would have made it by now. Hmm...oh well. Hope they actually get there. They were some good postcards. And I never got my letters from last week because our zone leaders didn't want to drive over to our apartment to give the mail to us. So I will be getting double of everything this week.

And as far as letters being returned to me, I have no idea why. It says the postage is payed for, says that it arrived in a city near the location, and then it has the "return to sender" stamp. It hasn't happened since I got here to San Diego, but it happened a ton in the MTC, and I'm not sure why. In fact, I got HALF a letter back one time. That's right. Half. The mailing machinery must have ripped the letter perfectly so that the return address would be visible, but not the sending address. So yeah.

The baptism went really well! I didn't really contribute all that much to it, though. Since Elder W was the one who found A, he pretty much took over for the baptism. And A wanted him to be the one to baptize her, even after telling her that it was preferrable for a member to do it, so he was pretty proud of that. She is one of the elect. I can see in her eyes the recognition that this church really is His church. When she received the Holy Ghost she sat on the chair for a minute just looking at the floor. I could tell that she was sensing the difference between the presence and the Gift. Our next baptism is on the 28 of September. We are hoping that G will be able to be ready for that date, and M and M have decided that they want to have their son taught and baptized with them, so their baptismal date is also the 28 of September. M and M are solid and practically guaranteed to be baptized, but their son has a bit of ADHD, and so he has a bit of a hard time listening to the lessons. I don't think he sees the importance of what we're teaching. Then again, he's 11. So for the most part, we're counting on M and M to do the most for him as far as helping him gain a testimony.

Quick question, how was the marching band and the Madrigals in the Peach Days parade? I never heard about how that went. AND I REALLY WANT TO KNOW. I'm DYING without any instruments in my possession. President has allowed certain instruments in the mission, such as flutes, violins, guitars and such. Would it be possible to send me my ocarina? It should be in my room in my drawers. Or a pennywhistle would be fantastic. I would LOVE a pennywhistle. I just hate not being able to play an instrument of sorts. I can only play a couple of hymns (much to my surprise that I could actually play them), but I don't have a piano in my apartment. Only at the chapel.

And it's true. Fruit here...is bleh. The grapes, oranges, avocados, lemons, and limes are fantastic. I love how fresh they are. But the peaches, tomatoes, watermelons, and plums are...meh. The watermelons are really bland here. I was surprised.

In answer to one of Dad's questions, I have not felt any earthquakes since I've been here. I heard that the most earthquakes happen out in the Imperial Valley, which is practically its own mission. That, and it's blazing hot there. In the summer, it hits around 130 in the daytime, and 90 at night. Then in the winter, it's 100 in the day, and 80 or so at night. So maybe I'll get sent there sometime in my mission.

Anywho, this last week was quite interesting. We've had temperatures here of over 100 degrees, and the humidity just kills me. The work has been fluctuating. We've lost a couple of great investigators, and we're not sure why. Both were miracles. All of a sudden, they've stopped texting us, and they won't answer our phone calls. We're not sure what happened. But we have been able to find a good number of new contacts to go teach. One is convinced that Mary the mother of Jesus had no other biological children. Another actually used to live in Payson, Utah, and is a less active member. And one has been contacted by missionaries several times; it sounded like more than 10 companionships. But other than that, we had the baptism, so we didn't have many teaching appointments on the day of. Then we finally found an investigator/referral that we've been trying to meet for over a month. We finally met with her and her husband. Their story is remarkable. They have been going through a horrible marital separation situation for the last 6 months. Custody battles, insults, harsh words, everything. Then, just last week, they reconciled with a lot of apologizing and crying, and they are back together to save their marriage. The husband was thoroughly impressed by his uncle who joined the church, and how the church ultimately changed his life. He wants to know everything about this church, because of how profoundly it changed his uncle. And the wife wants to find a stable, family based religion to raise their daughter in, as well as to find good fellowship. We shared with them some wisdom from the scriptures, and I felt prompted to say a little bit about the parable of the Prodigal Son, in reference to "A ring, a robe, and a fatted calf" by Jefferey R. Holland, which you sent to me. They were deeply touched by the Spirit, and both had tears in their eyes. They were absolutely willing to have us over again, and even to feed us if we could do that.

And something that I found in the scriptures was the significance of the Holy Ghost in our lives. Not as our comforter and guide, but as the Purifier of our souls. To be born of water is to make the covenant with the Lord which cleanses us of our sins, and represents the death and resurrection of Christ. To be born of the Spirit, is something entirely different. By partaking of the sacrament with a broken heart and contrite spirit, the Holy Ghost, by spiritual fire, cleanses us again of the sins that we had in that week. The Holy Ghost is how we are baptized every time we take the sacrament, and he effectuates the purification of our souls. I had never noticed that before. And after combing through first and second Nephi, I've been finding so many profecies and references to our day and time, as well as the Second Coming of the Lord. And I also found that the thing that will burn the wicked in the Second Coming is the actual presence of Jesus Christ. The righteous will be transfigured to endure His glory, and the wicked will burn in his presence. THAT, and in an Isaiah verse, it said that the Lord would protect his people Zion, even unto the consuming of their enemies by fire. So. That's my little spiritual tidbit that I found this week.

-Love, Elder Crook