Week 88 - POOL PARTY!!

This week was purely amazing! 

So many cool things happening here in Jönköping! :) The Lord is richly blessing us. Some highlights, we had some lessons, we had a few member meals as usual, we had Zone Conference which as always was such a boost! A much needed boost. Throwing us into another transfer. We were able to attend a baptism for an 8 yr old member in our ward and I was asked to speak which was also fun. Aaaaaand last but not least RAUNO GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was such a great service. His mom was able to come and she was really excited. :) The members that came were really happy for him and supportive. The rest of the week, was full of finding and helping other come unto Jesus Christ. :)

Rauno the man. He has quite the back story I am going to try and explain it as concise as I can so y'all can catch a glimpse of why I am so excited about this.  Back to the year 1961. Rauno's mother and father were baptized into the restored church of Jesus Christ in Finland and were very active for about 3 years. Some thing happened and Rauno moved with his mom to Sweden. Fast forward to about 2010 or so Rauno who was living in Uppsala at the time "mysteriously" received one of the seldom used, oversized pass along cards of Jesus Christ with the words "tro på Kristus"(Faith in Christ) on it. He still doesn't remember where it came from. But has kept that with him. Over the years he has visited church here and there wanting to learn more. So of course, he goes to the internet and searches "Mormons" on Google. You can imagine what came up and that man read every last link. Could have been really bad honestly and it was at first. He got into a lot of Anti material and at first was a pretty shaken! But he continued his search in better places, stayed in tune with the spirit, continued to meet the missionaries and feast upon the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon. Through out this time, there were a lot of miracles on the missionaries side finding him and keeping contact with him. He has had constant contact with missionaries for about a year. Eventually, he felt as if he knew enough to make an educated decision. He looked back at his life and realized God has always been directing him to the church. His parents being baptized, the pass along card, meeting the missionaries and all the other happenings. He told of us of an experience he had where he saw himself with our savior and he said to Rauno, "It is time to be baptized, there is work to be done." HOW COOL IS THAT?!? So Saturday, I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize him and Yesterday he was confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints by our bishop. We have really grown to love Rauno and have loved seeing him progress in the gospel. My people, miracles do happen!

Another little miracle from this week! So, Saturday morning we had planned to swing by the family that we have been teaching and invite them to the baptism which was that same day. We got out to their house and they weren't home.. Pretty bummed. Got back on the bus to head back into town. About 3 bus stops down the line, another guy that we have been teaching, Iragi, got on the bus! He has a history of being hard to get a hold of. So we seized the opportunity to talk to him and see how he is doing. Come to find out, just quit his job to start studying (which is good news because he can meet more)! So that was cool. Then we invited him to the baptism, and he actually came! It was so awesome! He though it was really cool! After, I was joking with him and said, "You're next buddy!" and he laughed and said "You never know" :) So cool to see the Lord lead us where to go even though our initial plans didn't work out, He knew. :)

I was thinking what I could share with y'all this week and I came across a talk by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf for the October 2011 General Conference titled, "You Matter to Him" and there was a quote in there that really struck me. "The most powerful being in the universe in the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a perfect love." The first thing we teach people is missionaries is, "God is your loving Heavenly Father" But I don't think most of us realize the depth of that simple gospel truth. God truly knows, loves, and cares about each and every one of us and wants us to be happy and that is why he gives us things so that we came be happy and someday return to him. :) Think about that this week when times get hard that YOU are loved. :)

Sorry for the long email, hope you didn't get too bored reading it. And sorry for the lack of pictures. I will get better at it one day. Well, I love you all so so very much. I will see y'all in a short 3 months! :) Thanks for your love and your prayers. :) I hope you all have a wonderful week! Don't forget to Keep the Faith!!

Love,

Elder Baggett

Me, Rauno and Elder Oldham