Andrew's Baptism

 Mon, Sep 19, 2011 

Dear Jared,

Sounds like things are going really well for you and you are baptizing the nations. :)
We are anxious to hear how the baptism went on Friday. Also, did you move into your new apartment yet?

On Friday night, Craig set up his outdoor theatre and we watched the show 17 Miracles. It is a movie about the Martin-Willy Handcart Company. It tells the story of the pioneers as they travel to Zion. It is heart wrenching to see what they went through, but also astonishing how many miracles they witnessed. The writer did a lot of research and studied personal journals to make the movies as factual as possible. This is another reason we should keep a journal. You never know when someone will want to make a movie about your life. :)

For our Stake fireside on Sunday, we had T.C. Christensen, the writer of the movie, come and speak to us. He did a fantastic job. It was fun to hear some of the trivia behind the scenes. It was really amazing to learn some of the many miracles that the pioneers experienced. Someone asked why he thought the Lord made it so tough on the pioneers when he could have given them even more miracles and made it easier. He then asked everyone who is a descendant of that company to stand.  About a fourth of the audience stood. (You could have stood had you been there.) He went on to explain that because they struggled so much, they really had to look inward for strength and rely completely on God. That made their testimonies so strong. God helped them enough just to get them there, and His miracles were enough to sustain them, but not enough to weaken them. You've heard the phrase, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".  He believes that the testimonies those pioneers had were strong enough to sustain several generation. You are part of that heritage.

We love you. Keep your chin up, and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.

Love,

Mom

Hey,


We just got transfer calls this morning. Looks like my time in Plainfield is up. I'm getting transferred on Wednesday. I'm really sad about leaving this area, but I guess I'm needed somewhere else. This week really had its ups and downs. To start off the week, when we met with Bob on Tuesday we found out that he was searching for something on the internet and ran into some anti information. He read an article about a book full of information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". We told him about how dangerous that stuff is, but he's insisting that he needs to buy this 800 page book and read it to get the answers. It's really heartbreaking. This really shook him up. He missed church on Sunday, which was the first time he missed since Mother's Day. I'm really worried about him.

On the other hand, we had Andrew's baptism this Friday. It was a great experience. He had a lot of family show up, and there were a lot of people from the ward too. Andrew's stepdad was the one who performed the baptism. He's changed a lot lately. You can really tell the difference its making in their family. They're excited to eventually get sealed in the Indianapolis temple once it's built.

I meant to send some pictures last time, but the Plainfield library was closed, so we had to go to the Avon library instead, and they didn't have any SD card slots on their computers.

Love, Jared