"Wow Mom, sounds like a busy week! I've got to go somewhat fast because I took a long time to write President Mackay, but sometimes I can get a lot out in time. I'll start with the highlight: Saturday night at 7:00 pm! Baptism of Sandra B! I don't do an incredible job of telling you about all the people we teach, because these emails would become "the large plates," but regardless if I mentioned her or not, here is the story:
A 90 degree or so day with the sun high in the sky. Elder Derbidge and I are riding through Parlier on our bikes. It's probably 12:00 or 1:00. We crossed the 4-way stop in town, Mendocino and Parlier. Right at the corner there is a woman with a parasol. She looks like she isn't Spanish speaking, so I continue at my normal pace; then the Spirit kicks in and I feel the need to stop. I stop! Elder Derbidge almost crashes into me because it was a bit abrupt. We talk and she turns out to be a good investigator.
Later her son was baptized, but she was not.
After this, she had a personal spiritual experience where the Holy Ghost warned her not to do something, really bad apparently. She heeded it at the last minute, and kept most all commitments from that point and progressed to baptism.
The Elders called and said she was being baptized, so I got permission to attend the baptism. It was awesome to see the changes that took place and how much faith she now has. The Selma Spanish Branch has also had several other baptisms since then, and plan to have more. There is great hope for that area and it surely "has blossomed like a desert rose" like the promise to the Lamanites in Doctrine & Covenants 49. The groundwork I laid with Elder Derbidge and Elder Ennis was indeed significant, and now there is great success there.
There were so many missionaries and members there. There was also another girl baptized that night, about 16 years old, that others were involved with as well. There was a baptism for the English ward at 6:00 too. There was an extremely strong Spirit present and it was a wonderful day!
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| President Mackay and missionaries at the baptism |
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| Multiple missionaries with Sandra |
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| Elder Schaff and Sandra |
All of these are the baptism pictures, except the one of me in the apartment. Elder B loves working out and we visited the gym today. I thought my hair looked funny before we left so I took a picture. It's dumb really, but ha ha.
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This week was interesting. Each day we had more visits, and talked to more people, but the ultimate result was no new investigators and 3 potential investigators. We also tried to visit a Ward member that lived 10 miles away out in the country. It was like 7:00 and dark out, and as we got there we were 3 roads off the main road. The last two roads were dirt roads with a bunch of potholes. It was kind of hilly, so the lights didn't shine too far out. There were shrubs and trees to the left and right, so it was looking pretty creepy. As we got closer, fog started to set in. We arrived at the house and it was blocked with a metal gate poorly painted red that said "no trespassing." We tried to find a way in, but it was all locked. It was very creepy and to be honest I really thought something might jump out at us. If anything wanted to, it was a good spot. We left, but Elder B had an impression that we needed to turn back. We returned, but nothing happened again, only that dust had risen into the air since we had last been there and the visibility was even worse. But the delay ended up allowing us to catch a less-active Melchizedek priesthood holder right as he got home. So there were blessings from an odd adventure.
President Mackay has also asked me to report on what is happening in Chowchilla and help him make a decision if the area should stay open, so that's a big question I've been asked to help with! I'll be fasting and praying to get the right answer!
That's the week! We gave 6 prisethood blessings in one day as well, which was also intriguing.
I've gotta go, but I love you family, have a good week!"
--Elder Schaff
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