Week 77: BAPTISM!!

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening!!

This week went super quick!! It was a really good one too!

Dima's Baptism!
On Saturday we had a great baptismal service for Dima it was awesome! That morning we ran over to the branch to start filling up the font and since we live not too far we went back home afterwards to eat and get somethings ready. Then at 9 we were already back in the branch. Then Dima rolled up an hour and 40 minutes early for his baptism!! Haha it was awesome. He was nervous and excited and he just couldn't wait and needed to come to the branch so that's what he did. We had a good group of members come to support him which was really exciting. He was happy that there was a good group. I had the opportunity to baptize him and that was a really special opportunity that I was really grateful for! He was so happy and just bright and smiling after his baptism. The branch really welcomed him and embraced him into the fold. The leaders in the branch are working hard to get him an assignment and a calling and the Aaronic Priesthood so it's super cool to watch everyone moving and working together.

Sunday
We thought it would be good if the Branch President gave Dima the Gift of the Holy Ghost and he thought that would be really cool. That was a super special opportunity to also be apart of the circle. The spirit was really strong both at his baptism and as he received the Holy Ghost. Just in talking to him about everything he was super happy and had some big spiritual experiences. We recommended that he write down his thoughts somewhere in his journal or on a paper some where and he said as he did it he thought he would write down his feelings and it'd be just a couple of lines and he went and started writing down and he went and wrote a couple of pages!! Good on him))

Exchange
This week we had an exchange and I was reunited with my beloved son Elder Trounce. It was truly a great moment. It was really fun to see what we've learned since we served together about 8 months ago. It was really fun to reminisce a little bit about our old Nikolaevsky days. Good times. We also had a really good exchange! One cool moment we were contacting and we ended up running into a member of the church on the street that hasn't been to church in a while! It was such a miracle! 

People
We've now basically done a clean sweep of all those we are teaching and we've got one that stayed on the board. Haha. Were teaching Dmitry he's the older brother of a recent convert Maksim and he's progressing really well! It's cool to see how he has been prepared for the Gospel in this moment of his life! He's a really good brother and he came to Dima's baptism and he really felt the spirit and then was also able to make it to church! So that's good news! And about the lack of people we've got great plans so stay tuned;) 

Spiritual thought
I've been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon and the role it plays in conversion and in the strengthening of our testimonies! As the prophets and apostles teach it's so important that we study often and with the spirit! I hope you find the opportunities to do some reading every single day! Our testimonies will grow and strengthen as we study and feast upon the words of Christ! Here is one of my favorite talks about the Book of Mormon from Elder Holland



Love you!!
Have a great week!! 

Elder Halls




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 20 Winter Wonderland

Image
Hello family and friends! I hope you all had a great week this past week wherever in the world you are right now! This week was really great for me! I'm learning so much and growing more and more into the work!  IT IS GETTING COLD!! Saturday I remember walking outside and I think I shed a little tear of sadness because I had thought we were on our way back to warmer weather but that is just not the case. I think it won't be warming up even just a little bit any time soon haha. This week it snowed sooo much. Pretty much everyday! It's hard to tell how much because when you are living in a city of 1 million people and everyone walks everywhere it just gets all compressed down on the sidewalk, then after that turns into ice. People fall all the time its funny but also sometimes really sad! Lets just say we've had a lot of opportunities recently to serve Dnepr's older folks :)  Another cool things with all the snow is that usually all the moms in the city take ...
Read more

Week 23: I promise we aren't thieves

Image
Привет всем!!! Это я Старейшина Халлс все хорошо у меня! Another week is here in the books in Dnepr, Ukraine, we are all doing good the ice is melting off of the ground and it's getting warmer which I am very excited about! However I still think that it is just the weather deceiving us and it's about to get even colder than I thought was possible... But there is always hope maybe winter is on the outs early this year in Ukriane! посмотрим!  This week has been pretty good for me!! I felt like I've had so many great experiences and learned a lot as well!! I think I'll just go right in! Tuesday we have this weekly things where we go over to this members house and help here grandson out with some English help and then we also do a lesson! Her grandson and her son are not members but they come to church sometimes! this week was our third week there but it was the first time that Zhenya stayed and listened to our lesson which was really exciting! We are super grat...
Read more

Week 97: Igor's ready!

Image
Hello everyone!! This has been a really eventful and productive week! The biggest part of it I would say has been our teaching of Igor. I've grown to love this brother deeply! We quickly went through all the lessons. Most things he already remembered but there were a lot of other things that we were able to remind him and help him with and that was really good. Things like the Priesthood and the Sacrament. I felt that the spirit was a big help when we prayed to know what we should focus on as we worked with him. There were small and simple promptings that came that we then followed and felt good about. It's amazing to me to see the peace that he feels as he prepares for his baptism. He's very grateful for the work and things we have been doing to help him prepare for his baptism and also get his baptismal service ready and planned. He will be baptized this Saturday. We have been able to talk about everything with the branch leaders and we should have a great baptismal ...
Read more