Week 11: Verdinho's First Baptism

Yet another week with plenty of good and bad things; it's crazy how life works that way. 

First Baptism -- This week I performed my first baptism for an investigator! I may have mentioned her before: she lives alone in a neighboring city with four babies, and somehow still finds time for our lessons and to come to church each Sunday! Everyone in the ward was very excited to support her at her baptism, while I was nervous about performing it. But, it went off without a hitch. Except, she didn't understand me when I briefly said that she can plug her nose during the baptism, oops. 

Also, I was surprised my companion chose to have me perform the baptism because, funnily enough, until three days before the baptism, I hadn't ever met her in person. The one day that our companionship was able to teach her in person, I had a division and joined a different companionship for the day. :/

Zone Conference -- We had our first zone conference this week, which was very exciting. Over 25 missionaries met together with President Santos of the mission for instruction and interviews. My interview with the president went as well as it could given he only speaks Portuguese. We had plenty of time to chill as well and see the temple, given my companion and I were the very last to go in the day. But it was good: the Brasilia Temple is beautiful and the pres ordered pizza for us.

Favorite Hymn -- My favorite hymn this week, again, was not from the hymnbook but the children's songbook and was #100: Baptism. You can guess where I heard this one. It was one of those that I completely forgot existed, until we started, and I realized I know the whole melody.

Obviously, baptism has been on our minds. And I want to share the covenants one makes during baptism, because many people (including some missionaries) don't think about them often. They are:

And, I especially want to talk about the last covenant, the one that I think makes it the most complete. In his email this week, my great friend Elder Low shared about his struggles on the mission with having the motivation to continue without all of the things he misses in his life. First, he's doing a great job teaching the people of France that the gospel can be better than a glass of wine. And second, I know it can be difficult as well. One of the Elders in my apartment is about to return and is already dreaming about skiing, and it's making us miss home too. But for me, when I think about how long the mission is, I think about how long life is. I think about the incredible amount of time I will have after the mission to watch all of the movies and play all of the games that I want to, and how much better it will be with a foundation in the gospel and in myself. And especially, after I think of life, I think of how long eternity is. And off of that, I want to share a scripture that I have marked in my Livro de Mormon, Alma 5:26:

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

This is what I think the covenant to Endure to the End really is. Life has its good and its bad parts, and when it's difficult and it seems like we can't feel God's love at that moment, we have to remember that we have felt God's before and have hope that we will again in the future. That is enduring. And it is necessary because, y'know, judgement day isn't tomorrow (don't quote me on that), and we have a lot of life to live now. I have felt the song of redeeming love, and I want to continue singing it for the rest of my life, during the good and bad.

Anyway, that's it for this week,

Till next time,

Elder Haroldsen

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