Mistakes On Purpose

28 April 2014

So this week was good but a little tough because all four of us missionaries here in Votuporanga caught a cold.  So we were all sniffling our way through our lessons last week until today when we can sleep a bit since its P-day.  But we did have a baptism this week!  It was a very cool story which I shall tell you all right now:

We met Annalice about two weeks ago.  I have actually already written about her.  We met her on a Saturday night in the house of two investigators that weren't really very interested in the message but they had invited their neighbor, Annalice, to listen as well.  We invited them all to Church the next day.  Annalice said she would go but I didn't really think it was all that likely since she didn't seem that interested.  But, like I related a few weeks ago, when we got to church the next day she was already in the Chapel waiting for the meeting to start.  

The next Tuesday we taught her and invited her to be baptized and she accepted.  So we marked a date for April 27th because I forgot that Saturday was the 26th which would have been better because then she could be confirmed the next day. But I mixed up the days and we marked the 27th. This will become important in the story later.

        The following Friday we returned to teach her again and to see how she was doing.  We had asked her to read two specific chapters of the Book of Mormon because she liked to read.  When we got there, she had already read the two chapters and had started from the beginning of the book and was now in Chapter 58 of Alma, which is more than half way through the book for those of you who aren't familiar with the BoM.  

          We then asked her what her favorite part was (which we often ask people to see if they really are reading) and she related to us the entire story of the 2000 Stripling Warriors with lots of details.  She really read.

The next Sunday she didn't go to church because she has insommnia and couldn't sleep the night before.  This was a problem because a person has to go to church at least two times before their baptism.  So since the 27th was the date for her, it worked out after all.  It turned out the 27th was her birthday.  So she was born to the earth and to the gospel on the same day.  Sometimes we make mistakes on purpose.

I hope you enjoyed the story.

I love you all.

Elder Russell