December 17th 2008

What a great week this has been! But of course every week is great. But what was so great about it is that we had THREE baptism!
12-11-08
We had the wonderful opportunity to attend Zone Conference and hear from our awesome mission President and the assistants to the President. They are wonderful men. And even better, there is a Elder out here named Elder Taylor (who is one of my zone leaders) and he is an amazing piano player and he played 2 musical numbers that really helped the spirit to be there. The weather was horrible though. It was raining and traffic was miserable! After the conference ended we had to TRY and leave right away because we had Jarvis Sinclairs baptism to get to by 5:30 and we were at least an hour away if not more because of the weather and traffic. SO our ride was a half our late and we missed the baptism! :( Very sad day for me. That was my first baptism that was actually an investigator that I began teaching. We made it for his water side confirmation and testimony though. But it was still really hard for me to get over the fact that I missed out. Jarvis has become really close to sister Glauser and I so it sucked not being able to see him enter into the first covenant he made with His Heavenly Father. But he understood...
12-13-08
This day was a great day as well. We had Vinnie's baptism at 2 and then had the opportunity to be in a parade! We were on TV and everything. It was great. There were a few missionaries there and we had the chance to be in the parade and pass out pass along cards and talk to A TON of people! It was SO much fun!!!! We all absolutely loved it. There was a girl in the ward where we were helping who has a cruch on Elder Taylor. So it was fun watching her flirt with him and him being uncomfortable... LOL good times. The baptism went really well and the spirit was strong. Vinnie was very emotional. She was confirmed the following Sunday.
12-14-08
We went to a members home for lunch and to help her decorate for Christmas! It was so much fun to decorate her tree and house for this wonderful holiday. We shared stories of family traditions and even better, stories about Christ. Her name is Sister Archibald and she teaching the semenary class out here. She's amazing! Very very knowledgable!
12-16-08
Then yesterday was Faustinos baptism! He was so excited! I loved seeing him! He even made hot tamalies for the snack afterwards! They were so good. I thought of Brandy while I ate them because she'd be loving life if she would've been able to have some. I know how much she loves them. But a really sad but amazing experience happened yesterday... So there's a guy named Steve Sheriff who is know at an eternal investigator because he's been investigating the church for years now. He's an older man that lives at home with his parents who are also VERY old. They have been married for 67 years. So his mom has been in the hospital and very sick the past few days. Sister Glauser and I stop by the hospital to see if Steve was there so we could invite him to the baptism because he really wanted to go. But he wasn't there. We visited with his dad for awhile and left to steve's house because his dad said that's where he was. So we get there and were talking to him for maybe 5 minutes and he gets a phone call from his dad... His mom had passed away as we were speaking... I couldn't believe it. We were just with her not even 10 minutes before hand. I was so sad for him and his Dad. His Dad was talking to us about how hard of a time he's having because he can't say good-bye to someone he's been with for almost 70 years.... I about cried. But we comforted Steve and went on our way. Told him to call us if he needed anything. So later on, we were at the baptism. And just as they were about getting ready to baptize Faustino, Steve walks into the room!!!! I couldn't believe it!! His mom JUST died but he came anyways! It was so amazing! My eyes teared up and I ran to greet him. He said he couldn't miss it! It was amazing! Good day!! no no no GREAT DAY!
12-17-08
And Last night was transfer call night. What an intense night! I tell you what. But everyone's prayers were answered and I'm staying in Yorktown baby! Man was I happy! I really wanted to stay. ESPECIALLY for Christmas because we have some awesome stuff planned and I wanted to be here to teach Pete most of all. He's so solid and is gonna get baptized... When we teach him of course. He's is DEFINATELY one of God's elect that He put in our path! It's so great! We have 22 new missionaries coming in to the mission. That is A LOT! The work is just moving along so great! I love it! I don't even know where this transfer went! It just flew by! Well that's about all for now. Thanks for all you all do! And for all your love and support. I dont' know if I'll be able to e-mail next week because our p-day falls on christmas eve and I don't think the library will be open. So MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all! I love you! Remember the CHurch Is TRUE!!
-Sister Orawiec