We had a baptism this week! WOW! Who woulda thought that that could happen to little ol’ me? Hallie (the mom), and her two boys, Dustin and Brandan, decided to enter the waters of baptism to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! How cool is that?! We’ve been teaching them since Thanksgiving. Once 2012 started, we taught them discussion after discussion, and doctrine after doctrine, and they just accepted it and kept asking for more! They were actually developing testimonies of the things we were teaching! What an elect family!

Their baptism took place on the morning of January 22, 2012. Elder Stone and I showed up at the church building at 7am to start the font and shovel the walkways. We’ve been experiencing quite the blizzard here in Wells! Once the walkways were clear and the font was getting warm, we tidied up the Relief Society room and set up the TV for our video presentation. Hallie and her boys arrived at about 8:30am and got dressed in their stylin’ white jumpsuits. We snapped a couple pictures and took our seats in the chapel (there were too many people in attendance to fit in the Relief Society room). Brother Haskell conducted. Opening prayer by Elder Stone. Talk on baptism by Sister Egbert. Once that was completed, the congregation made their way to the baptismal font which is on the other side of the building. Elder Stone and I served as witnesses as Hallie was baptized by Brother Egbert, Dustin was baptized by the Egbert’s son (a priest), and Brandan was baptized by Bishop Johnson.

While the three newly baptized members changed, we went back to the chapel where we watched a short video about missionary work (“By Small and Simple Things”). Elder Stone had a great idea to pass out paper and pens to everyone and we each wrote our testimonies to give the family when they came back into the chapel. Then, Sister Haskell gave a talk on the Holy Ghost followed by various “Welcome to the ward!” addresses. After the baptism, we parted ways for our church meetings. Elder’s quorum first, followed by Gospel Principles, and then sacrament meeting. In sacrament, Elder Stone and I, Bishop, Brother Haskell, Brother Monroe, and Brother Egbert stood in a circle to confirm each new convert so they could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost!

After sacrament, our ward threw a “Linger Longer” luncheon in honor of the Hallie’s family. It was quite the sight to see the ward rallying around their new members! It may have just been me, but I seemed to see a visible change in our three converts once they were confirmed members of the Church. What a wonderful blessing it was and is to be involved in the conversion of such a fantastic family!

It’s such a wonderful blessing to be able to serve the Lord while staying in contact with my family. I love my mission, both the good and bad, and I’m excited to see what else it has to bring. Please continue to pray for me as I do the same for you all. Remember the Lord in all you do and make sure you read your scriptures and pray every morning while continuing to pray throughout the day. The Gospel is really the key to happiness in this upside-down world of ours. Always remember that. Have open and frequent communication between everyone in the family. Have Family Home Evening. And above all, know that Elder Millar loves you completely and is rooting for you! Have a fantastic week, family. You’re wonderful and I can’t wait ‘til next week when I get to email you again.

Elder Jesse Millar

Hello again, family!

Yet another weekly email has landed in your inbox. A lot has happened this week, but I’m kind of unsure about how to describe it all. As I told Mom a short while ago, I’m kinda frazzled by everything which means this email MIGHT not be completely stellar. We shall see!

First up, we had a good district meeting this week. I went in with an entirely different attitude thanks to last week’s exchange with Elder Dixon (our zone leader). I enjoyed the experience and left with a smile. I’ve never been much of a fan of meetings. I’d much rather be out working than inside a stuffy chapel.

In other news, I’ve started teaching piano to a young boy in our ward. His name is Joshua. He’s a really cute kid who’s about nine years old. His mother plays flute but doesn’t really know how to teach him to read music or play with his left hand on the keyboard. I’ve only had one lesson with Josh, but he seems like an avid learner who actually wants to play piano. I’ll obviously have to tone everything down for him and teach in short segments, but I see it as good practice for teaching kids the gospel sometime down the road of my mission. Cool, huh? I’ll keep you posted on how things progress.

We had a service opportunity with a less active lady in our ward the other day. She lives on the Indian reservation. Her wood pile was starting to get a little low, especially in the kindling department, so we offered to help her cut some pieces into smaller chunks to help her start fires more easily. It only took us an hour, but it was quite the workout because she didn’t have a chopping block for us to use. When you have to precariously balance the wood on the ground and tap it with an axe instead of wailing on it with an axe (which is what you can do when the wood is balanced and raised off the ground), things are much harder. Against all odds, however, we succeeded!

We’re still working on setting up yearly mission plans with the members of the Wells ward. We’ve only visited two members thus far, but the two we’ve talked to have spread the word and people are beginning to see that we know what we’re doing (at least to an extent). Do you all have a mission plan? What are you doing to be more spiritual and open to more missionary opportunities?

The only other news I had was that of how our investigators are progressing. Hallie and her boys are loving the Gospel and everything about the Church. They’re set to be baptized on the 22nd (in one week) and are very excited. We’re excited too! Salvador has a few concerns and is hesitant about setting a date, but we asked him to pray about January 28th and he said he would. Those are the main investigators we have now. I’ll tell you more about the area in later emails as things progress.

I love you all and am incredibly grateful to know I have you as my family for eternity. That’s an incredibly comforting thought. Enjoy your week! Life is good!

Your missionary,
Elder Millar