Saturday, December 18, 2004
This morning we had the baptismal service of Romil and Maricel Viloria! Wow! So rewarding. All of the trouble and hassle of the marriage and of the interview with Pres Beck is finally worth it. The service was actually really crazy. No one came and even Bro Pulido, who should have done the baptizing, and Pres Isla, who should have presided, didn’t come. Elder Cox ended up presiding as District Leader and he also baptized brother and I got to baptize sister. It was a good experience. They are so happy. It was great to see brother and tell that he felt clean from all that had happened to him. Tomorrow they’ll be confirmed and become members of the church. I guess that was the one baptism that I’ll get to do in the ocean.
The Viloria Family
Us with the Vilorias on their baptism day. (Elder Cox, Maricel, Ramil, Elder Arnesen, Rachelle, Michelle)
Me preparing to baptize Maricel in the ocean
The rest of the day was good. We taught a lesson to Bro Aldana about the temple. We also went to Bro Gregorio’s home and took a picture of a “crystal ball” that came from under a tree on Palawan. All it was was a large brown glass ball. He thinks that some millionaire will buy it from him. It probably has something to do with old evil magic or something so I didn’t touch it. Anyhow, that was a strange experience. We also are trying to work with Pulidos to get another referral. We taught two first lessons off of finding today and so we’re trying to build back up our base support in Dagupan.
This really has nothing to do with anything but you should read the text on the building.
Yesterday, we had Zone Conference. It was good. I found out in my interview with Pres Beck that my next companion will also be an Elder Cox. He is from Idaho and is one batch behind me. I was, in my pride, hoping to be made District Leader, but I need to quench my pride. This is one of my biggest faults that I always think that I’m better than everybody else and I need to have a lot of hard humbling experiences. We watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and that brought back good memories of home, all except for the heat. I also got 5 packages. Three from Grandpa and Grandma Thomas and two from my family. There is a lot of candy but my favorite is the 12 days of Christmas thing that they sent. There are twelve envelopes that each have a candy and a note from one of the family about something they like about me. It is really a great gift and I can feel their love for me every night when I open that day’s little envelope. I was a little bit disappointed that I didn’t even get a letter from Amy. I was really hoping to get one. Oh well. The Lord knows what is best.