Mon 4/19/10 10:31 AM
Hello family,
Yes, Elijah's baptism went great! Everything worked out perfectly, and the Spirit was very strong throughout the service. The Swearingens were in charge of the music, and that added alot to the spirit of the meeting. Cody led, Sister Swearingen was the pianist, and Mandy sang a great musical number between my and Elder Quinney's talks. Many people came to support Eli, and we had a nice potluck dinner after it was over. The confirmation on Sunday went great as well.
One cool thing that happened the morning of the baptism: As we walked into Star and Eli's apartment, they had a friend over (Cassie), and the first thing that she said to us was, "I want to join too!" Elder Quinney was caught off guard, and he looked at me, and we both said, "Okay, sweet." haha. She is 16 years old and has already asked for permission from her parents if she could learn from us and be baptized. We are trying to expand the circle and include the rest of her family in the lessons as well. We asked her why she decided that she wanted to join, and she said it was because of the way she has seen Star's life change, because she is so much happier now. And she has also seen the changes that Eli was making in his life to prepare for his baptism, and she wanted it too. Interesting though, is that she is mostly the friend of Star and Eli's sister, Rea, who hasn't been that interested in the Gospel. So, we told Rea that if she decided that she did want to learn, that she could be baptized on the same day as her best friend. She didn't commit to anything yet, but hopefully she will choose to do that! Right now, Cassie's baptism is scheduled for May 8th.
The rest of the week also went well! We were able to teach a lot of really good lessons, and things just seemed to fall in place, for the most part, for us this week.
Thank you for sending that package; I look forward to receiving it! Happy Birthday, Kyle! Hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Vogan
