Baptisms = Awesomeness

This week was super duper, as I try to make every week out here in Arkansas.

I went on exchanges again this week over in Mountain Home. They have a new elder over there, Elder Luing who is a nice guy, just a little quiet. We had quite a few people to visit and I enjoyed my time over there. Mostly because for some reason he can't drive so I got to drive for like a day and a half. Holy balone I miss driving so much. PLUS on Monday, since it was our preparation day, we went to this music store and bought a Gospel CD by Johnny Cash and the Hobbit soundtrack. I'm not positive if the Hobbit is 100% Kosher, but I think I'm okay. Elders out here seem to think that soundtracks are okay if they are classical-ish, which the Hobbit totally is. My moral jury is still out on that one though. The Johnny Cash one is awesome though. The album is "God" and it's a compilation of some of his gospel music. Some of it is really good, like "The Kneeling Drunkard's Prayer" others are a little weird, but still awesome like "Belshazaar" (It's Elder Beddes's favorite and he says it's our song. How cute) but other others are just odd, like "The Greatest Cowboy of them All" (You guessed it, it's Jesus.) It's good though. It's nice to get some variety because we drive so much around here.

The Powers's baptism was this week! And it was awesome! Oh man. So Lily didn't change her mind and I baptized her. Well I take that back. On Monday when Elder Ostler interviewed her she changed her mind and wanted him to baptize her. I thought it was pretty funny, but also offensive, Then I remembered that Lily is a nine year old girl and Elder Ostler is buff and I have a gut. Moral of the story: If you want to baptize a lot of people, be attractive.

Moving on!

So Lily went first. Which meant I also went first. Which made my nerves even worse. So the prayer has to be exactly like the one in D&C. Do I have it memorized? Heck yeah, it's like two lines long. DId I still mess it up? Of course I did. I said, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the HolySpirit" instead of "...Holy Ghost." I blamed my Catholic schooling for that, and did it right the second time. People kept making jokes about it though, like saying "You should've sprinkled her, or just splashed her the first time." It was amusing. Everybody else's baptism was perfect and super and the Spirit was super strong. Kim was super happy, and she cried. It was awesome. I love those guys.

Later that day, we also picked up a new investigator! His name is Johnathan and is really open to the Gospel, which is weird out here. He can't read very well apparently, so we're trying to get the Book of Mormon on CD for him. It was a good Thursday.

On Saturday we did service! Oh man, I love service. And it's totally not just because I don't have to wear a white shirt and tie. Our ward mission leader, Fred Fredlund, wanted to surprise his wife by painting one of the rooms for their new baby.  When I asked where she was, Fred responded, "She's at some women's thing, I dunno. There's brownies." I got a kick out of that. He gave me permission to put it in a book or something, saying "Yeah you can even use my real name too. 'Fred Fredlund.' Nobody would believe someone would actually name their kid that." Fred is a funny guy. While we waited between coats, Elder Beddes helped cut weeds and I helped wrangle the kids. Then it turned into Elder Beddes and Fred painting and me reading to the kids and playing with them. It was pretty great. They have a playhouse with a ship's wheel at the top. We sailed to McDonald's like three times. It was pretty great. Aiden, the youngest kept giving me imaginary cookies and making me eat them. Then for dinner we had hotdogs and then s'mores around their campfire pit. It was an awesome day. 

On Sunday we had a broadcast from Tulsa! Sister and President Shuway spoke, and then Bishop Davies, who is in the Presiding Bishopric spoke. Sister and President Shumway did an awesome job. They made me want to be a better missionary. Bishop Davies...well I was kind of expecting more from him to be honest. He talk a little bit about stuff, but nothing important, it was like story time. He talked for an hour, and I think he said "Don't feel like you have to take notes on this stuff, unless the Spirit impresses you to" like three or four times. There was also a question and answer session, which was meh. I was disappointed, but Sister and President Shumway's talks were incredibly spiritual and I'm super grateful for them. I was also really hungry, so that probably didn't help either.

I love you all and think you're awesome. Keep the mail and e-mails coming! I really appreciate every bit of news I get to read, and I love hearing from you all!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake