We had a great week and we had another baptism!

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week this week! And if it wasn't so wonderful I hope that this week is better! My week was really pretty great! There are always ups and downs, but I have learned that focusing on the ups instead of the downs helps us to be happier people! Well this last week we were able to have another baptism. This week Hno. Ignacio got baptized on Saturday. My companion, Elder Hernandez, baptized him. When we were asking him who he wanted to baptize him he looked at Elder Hernandez and said, "well, I want you to baptize me because you are big!" it was super funny, but super true. It seems like the investigators almost always choose the largest person available because they don't want them to drop them while they are being baptized. The baptism went pretty well. Elder Hernandez did have to baptize Hno. Ignacio two times because his foot came up out of the water. I was acting as witness so I said they had to do it again. The second time it was super funny because Elder Hernandez pushed him way deep under the water so that he wouldn't have to do it a third time. The Spirit was strong in the baptism. My companion and I sang "Lead Kindly Light" together and I also spoke on the Holy Ghost. On Sunday in Sacrament Meeting I confirmed him a member of the church. It went well and I felt as if the Spirit was really guiding every word I spoke during the blessing. I was really content knowing that we had helped another person be baptized and confirmed part of the true church of Jesus Christ on the Earth. I also got to speak in Church on Sunday again already. I spoke about Jesus Christ and His Atonement with a focus on the Resurrection, Easter being so close. I also spoke about missionary work and invited all of the members to come to and invite friends to our Ward Mission Activity this Saturday. We are going to have an open house and have different groups touring the chapel and listening about the different organizations like the Relief Society, Young Men and Young Women, Primary, Sunday School, etc. We are also going to show the new video for Easter called #Hallelujah put out by the church! It is wonderful and I am so excited to share it! You can watch it here. Anyway that is all of the exciting news of the week. Oh also I am excited because my trainee, Elder Muñoa, got transferred to my district. I am super excited to see him and have him close by again. It will be kind of weird being his district leader though. Haha. Anyway the work is going well all we have to do now is just find a bunch of new people to teach because all of them got baptized! I just want you to all know that I have a strong testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. I know that after He was crucified that He was resurrected on the third day and that because of His infinite sacrifice for us we will all one day rise from the grave to new life just as He did. He is our Redeemer. If we will follow Him and live His commandments we can return to live in His presence and with the Father. I love Him. I am so thankful to be a missionary to share this testimony with everyone, that Jesus Christ lives and that He loves each and every single one of us! I love each of you and hope you all are well. I hope you have an amazing week! Take care of yourselves! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

The biggest and happiest thing that happened was that we had another baptism!

Hey Everyone, Sorry that I didn't write very good last week we ran out of time! I will try to fill you all in a little bit on what has happened lately! Well a lot has happened in the last two weeks. Well I am now with my new companion only because Elder Tzub left like two weeks ago. It has been kind of a hard change and I am still trying to get used to it. Elder Hernandez who is my new companion is a great kid, it has just been a struggle getting used to him. Well this last week the biggest and happiest happening was that we had another baptism. We baptized Hno. Ruben who I have told you all about in previous emails. He got baptized on the first date we gave to him and it was really neat to be able to work with him to help him be baptized. We really did not do much for him, pretty much just taught the missionary lessons. The biggest help was the Gutierrez, Rodriguez, and Yañez family (they are all the same family just sisters so the last names change a bit). It was cool because about a week and a half ago we realized that he had a smoking problem. He didn't smoke a lot, but he did like to smoke every once in a while. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and told him that he couldn't be baptized unless he quit smoking. That same lesson he let us throw away his cigarettes and ash tray and since that moment he hasn't smoked again. It was great because we were worried that we wouldn't be able to baptize him. In his baptism it was quite amazing. We didn't do hardly anything, actually the member family is who made the program and baptized and confirmed him and everything. The hardest part was that because he doesn't have half of his right foot (he lost it to diabetes) it made baptizing him hard. He became really tense while the brother tried to baptize him. The first time his foot came out of the water and we decided it would be easier to baptize him if he was kneeling and facing forward. We still ended up having to repeat it three more times because his clothing and all of his body didn't go under the water. Actually the last time they told me to hurry and change into an overall and get into the font to help make sure that all of the clothing went under, and it did finally. Even though we had to submerge him four times afterward he was smiling like crazy and really enjoyed it. His student who started the whole process finished the service with a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Ruben got up and hugged him as he was speaking and then told everyone thank you for all they had done for him! Sunday was amazing too because in testimony meeting the whole family got up to share their testimonies and Ruben accompanied them to share as well. He told us (the missionaries) thanks and made me cry in his testimony and then Hna. Rodriguez (who is like my favorite sister in the ward) made me cry more by saying that she thinks that President Egginton really loves their ward because he sent them the best missionaries in the mission. I felt super special even though we hardly did anything for him. I feel so priviledged to be a missionary. Well the other fun and good and happy news is that also this Saturday we will be having another baptism. Hno. Ignacio will be getting baptized. I don't know if I have told you all about him or not, but he has been an investigator for a long time now and wasn't really progressing because he wasn't married. It was cool though because since I have gotten here he has been telling us about his efforts to get married and then about two weeks ago he told us unexpectedly that he had gotten married. We had his interview the other day and now he will be getting baptized. I am super excited! Now the only bad thing is that we don't have any other investigators that are really progressing. I guess that just means we have to find some new ones then! Well I just want you to all know that I have a firm testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this is His Church restored to the earth. I know that He chose Joseph Smith as His Prophet so that we could all have the fulness of the truth in our lives. I know that if we will be obedient to His commandments that we will find the greatest happiness! I hope that you all can find that happiness as you work to live His commandments every day! I love Him and I am so thankful that He has called me to declare His word that His people might have everlasting life! (3 Nephi 5:13) I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie