Baptism, Baptism, Baptism, Baptism, Baptism (Yes, five times!)

My heart is full.

Blessings are definitely pouring out all around me right now. L., S., R., B., and B. were all baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was a beautiful baptism. The Stake President and our Mission President were both there and both took a small time to share their testimonies and welcome the new members to the ward. The first convert baptisms in the newly formed Dimond Samoan ward! It's amazing. I still can't believe that it all worked out.

It was all hanging by a thread for each investigator a couple times this last week but I know that all of the prayers are helping.

I know God answers prayers. I have literally had all of my righteous prayers answered on my mission so far, or they are in the process of being answered; C. is preparing to a mission, but most importantly has experienced the power of the atonement. My friend A. is choosing for himself to seek the path that will lead to happiness. I've prayed for both of them daily every day of my mission.  I pray for many people back home and abroad, and I know God has answered my prayers. Many, many people have humbled themselves, prayed, and received an answer from God.

Yesterday at church S. showed up. We had taught her the first 3 lessons previously, but then she just fell off the face of the earth.  Well, apparently she had still remembered to pray and read, and had been doing so! So when she came to church this week, I asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and if the church is true, and she said YES!! So we taught a lesson on baptism from Matthew 3:14-17. These verses are marvelous because they show how much of an effort that Christ had to make, by walking the distance from Galilee to Jordan, to be baptized by John the Baptist, because he was the one who held the Aaronic priesthood - giving him the permission and power from Heavenly Father to perform this essential ordinance. These verses also highlight the example of Christ going down into the water, (verse 16 says, "Went up straightway out of the water," implying that he must have been in the water) and being baptized in the water.

This clearly shows that one must be baptized by immersion by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. And finally, we read that Christ is in the water being baptized, the Holy Ghost is descending in the form of a dove, and The Father is speaking from Heaven, saying that this, (Christ) is his beloved Son, and that he is well pleased with his actions. Father, Son, Spirit - three separate individuals fulfilling three parts of the one plan; the wisdom, the embodiment, the testimony.

They are one in Purpose, not in being. And knowing that God is pleased by Christ's baptism - we can know that when we want to please Heavenly Father, we should follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized.

When we were done talking about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost we invited her to be baptized. She set a date for April 9th! I have faith that it will work out.

The most important thing for me to do is to have unshakable faith that it will all work out; that Heavenly Father will prepare this person for baptism by that date because He loves them just as much as He loves me.  He wants them to make that commitment and the change in their lives that the ordinance of baptism represents. My epiphany this week as I was stressing and worrying about the baptisms was this: Christ created the world in 6 of his days. I'm sure His Father could prepare someone for baptism in six of ours!


If I don't share the truth with these people then who else will?

If we don't give them the truth then all they will ever be able to accept is lies.

If I don't have faith in the conversion process, then who will?

Every member has the power to change. To change anything. Heavenly Father can change anything.

Ask and ye shall be given, knock and it shall be opened unto you.

Ask for referrals, and you will receive prepared people; Go tracting, and you will find.

Just put out an honest effort. When you honestly do your best, Heavenly Father will make up that which you lack.

Pray always. And read your stinking scriptures. GO to Church, and stay for all your meetings. It's pretty simple.

Repent.

Repent.

Change for the better.

Love Elder Winterrose

P.S. here is the lineup for the big group photo, Left to right.

 Elder Justin W., R. H., Elder Britton Winterrose, B. P., L. H., Sister S. T., S. H., Elder Tyler W., B. P., Brother J. S., Brother B. P.

I baptized L., Elder W. baptized R., Elder W. baptized S., J. baptized L., and B. baptized B.

Brand New Elder for the Dimond Ward!

OK, so today was wonderful!!

My new companion is Elder T W. (grew up from Pismo Beach California, moved to Rexburg 3 years ago)! I only have like 30 seconds to write because our day has been packed with errands and we have to run Elder S. P. (another new arrival) to the airport and dinner and he has to be at the airport by 6:15... It's 5:45 right now, and the airport travel + dinner will take anywhere between 28-37 minutes...

Just wanted to get on and let you all know that I love you, my new companion is way awesome, and I love the Samoan Dimond Ward. OH MY HEAVENS!! I Got a letter from SAM and he is SOOOO SKINNY! AND TAN! It is NUTS!! I'm jealous of him! Haha!

The commando-Furby or Borgby, as we called him, was the crazy-inventor part of me coming out while me and Elder L. were together in Fairbanks. We were helping C. and J. clean out some storage, and J. found it and wanted us to dispose of it before the kids found it.... So we ended up with a Furby, and I had found a laser pointer all mangled in a parking lot a while back, so I took it apart and hollowed out the eye of the Furby, and installed a laser that would target for the Furby..... :) ADHD!

 
The truck, sticks in the grill, and tire marks were from when we were driving down from Fairbanks to transfers and we spun out. Elder L--- was driving with me riding shotgun, Elder L. and Sister C. were in the back. Luckily my experience in spinning out on the road, (I'm sure mom will never forget when that happened to us!!) and Elder L---'s calm focus, helped Heavenly Father to save us from physical danger. We ended up spinning all the way around twice, L--- over corrected, I told him to let go of the steering wheel.  We finally regained traction which ran us off the side of the road, down a shallow ditch, and up a slight hill. It was an exciting adventure. 

Last week a guy wanted to bible bash with me, but I told him I wouldn't and bore my testimony. He was silent for about a minute, till his anger from being confounded built within him. He asked me if I'd ever been hit in the face before... (threateningly) and I said, YEP! So then he asked me if I wanted to be punched in the face. I said no... But I considered saying yes for a moment in my mind because it would make a much better story of how this guy punched me in the face and then proceeded to get beat up by a pack of missionaries at the public library. BUT then I realized that it was Satan trying to get me to do that, and that it would hurt because he was a rather sizable homeless gentleman. Anyways, I told him that it wouldn't be wise and then we got up and walked away, but before we could leave he told Elder W. that he should bend him over his knee and spank him.

Silly Alaskan crazies.

My birthday was awesome. I have no time to elaborate. It was good.

I am so excited to train. And very very nervous.

Still haven't seen the doc about my ankle, I don't know what I need to do to go? Do I just call and schedule an appointment? Are our insurance benefits still the same for me or do I need to change anything? Please let me know!

I love you all!

Elder Britton Winterrose

PS  The word for dance in Samoan is Siva (SEE Va).  The word for hit, like I'm gonna hit you, is sasa (SAw SAw).

New Leadership - New Opportunities

Well! Hello.

This week was pretty good. Pretty slow, but pretty good. We ended up contacting 10 people that we've been trying to contact, and we picked up 3 new investigators to bring our total real-teaching pool to 5 people. Now the tricky part is getting with them and planning lessons with them and following through.

The good thing about all of this hard work is that the ward leadership is all new so everyone is fresh. They aren't burned out on trying to contact less active families and don't have any bad misconceptions about the missionary work being impossible. And they are excited! Nothing better than serving in a ward that is excited about missionary work! The Spirit is strong here, with all of these new leaders learning how the Lord will support the work. The change is so wonderful for the work.

I had the opportunity to swing by the Northern Lights Ward party and say Hi to a lot of people that I didn't get to say goodbye to, so that was wonderful. Almost all of the less active families that we worked with while I was there were at the party and are still coming.

Then yesterday I was talking to the second councilor in our ward and he started mentioning to me how he heard about all of those families who were active now and he said how it gives him a lot of hope for the less active families in our ward. (I don't think he knew that the NL ward was my last ward) :) It's awesome to see how one success can build up the kingdom in so many ways. It is humbling, and I am so thankful to be part of this work. I cannot express with words the way it feels when you see someone returning to the gospel! It is wonderful!

Another cool experience this week - I was asked to give a blessing to a guy who is in the hospital and it turns out that his son was there also. The dad is David Fanene and the son is Jonathan Fanene. Jonathan played for the Cincinnati Bengals since 2005 and before that he played for the Utes in 03 and 04. We got to hang out with them and just talk for a while so that was pretty cool. So that is two NFL players that I have met now. The really funny part was that we were just visiting with them for like 40 minutes before I made the connection. When I first saw him I was like,"Dang he must be in the NFL," but then I was thinking nah... And sure enough! That was neat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSF-aFgo5RE&feature=fvw

They were interviewed on 60 minutes too so that is pretty sweet.

Mo should do boys state.

Well I miss you guys! I love you and I can't wait to talk to you guys on Mothers Day.

I will send the old camera and the memory card with my pics soon.

Talk to you guys next week! Love ya!!

- Elder Britton Winterrose

It's All Good

Hi Mom,

Everything is going well in the new ward. It is kind of crazy right now because they still don't have a computer for our clerk yet so we haven't got an updated copy of the ward roster... and our current one is from 7 months ago, from long before the ward split. It is kind of hampering our work because the work focused in our area is mostly referral driven. That's why the work began to really pick up last transfer when we really started to work hard to ask for and contact referrals. It was still a good week in the new ward. We have been busy working hard and I really enjoy Elder J. W.'s company. He's very polite and enjoyable to be around! All in all it is a fun time. Hahah.

The new apartment isn't really an apartment. We live in a member's home, the M.'s home. They are very nice and have been housing the missionaries for a long time now. And they insist on buying our groceries for us! How wonderful is that! Plus now we have a dishwasher, and a nice new washer and dryer that we can use. It is wonderful! AND the other night we came in and they were watching Star Wars upstairs and we could hear the whole thing, so I pretty much just closed my eyes and watched it on the back of my eyelids. Star Wars is always a great conversation piece with a new companion. If they love Star Wars as much as I do, then we will probably get along wonderfully! Hahah.

Well I really don't have a ton to say this week... OH something sad that happened, I lost my journal... and I had been really writing in it often lately so that is pretty devastating. I was going to take it to transfers and ask Elder L. to write in it, and somewhere on that busy Tuesday it got lost. It sucks major. Oh and I lost my CTR ring last Tuesday when we played basketball. Really though, those are the only two bummers.

I hope you got to sign D. and M. up for EFY already! I loved EFY. It was always awesome.

Oh and Elder L. first name is T..

Love,

Elder Britton Winterrose