Monday, October 20, 2008

Daniel's Baptism!

Here is part of Elder Rau's letter from today:

"Daniel got baptized on saturday and everything went according to plan! The baptism was awesome and his confirmation on Sunday was equally cool. However, the week leading up to the baptism did not go as planned. We went out to his house last Saturday and had an amazing lesson. Tuesday was a little different. He was feeling a little conflicted and confused about how he was feeling. He thought that he needed more time. We explained that he was probably just feeling a little nervous and it was perfectly normal. He was also having trouble sleeping and wasn't sure that he was ready. This is where the spirit took over. This was the most powerful and spiritually guided lesson of my mission thus far. The promptings were so clear and made so much sense. I was learning as I was speaking to him. My spanish wasn't perfect, but it improved significantly. We explained that maybe this was just a trial of his faith. Maybe the Lord was testing him to see if it really was a desire of his heart. We also shared some personal experiences that related to how he was feeling. At the end of the lesson, he still wasn't feeling awesome, and this feeling continued until his interview on Thursday. It was an hour long. One of our zone leaders, Elder Kibler, did an awesome job in the interview, because he felt better still afterwards. He still wasn't sleeping well.....Saturday morning we called him and he was on board, 100% and ready to go. The baptism went forward and was almost perfect. the only thing that was wrong was our starting time. We started ten minutes late...not bad huh? Elder Brooks (who is still my companion...and will be until about november 12th) said it was the smoothest baptism he has ever seen. I was privileged to be the one to baptize him. There is so much power i that ordinance. I felt the spirit so strongly as I raised my arm to the square and called him by name, then performed the ordinance in the name of the Father, the So and the Holy Ghost. I still can't really describe my emotions, but it was an experience that I will never forget." 


Elder Rau cleaning dead cockroaches out of the font

Elders Brooks and Rau with Daniel

A picture of their church building

2 comments:

Don Layton said...

I knew that Elder Rau was going to be an incredible missionary. And to think that he's only been out for a few months.

That's a great story. I'm going to send it to Elder Layton.

Grandma Jeanie said...

Way cool,Elder R! Definitely a story to share. We are thinking of you back here in Bend ... keep up the good work and great spirit.
Jeanie Bean