Dear Family and Friends,
Another week is drawing to an end. This one has got to be unique, we guess as all are. As those who know us know that one of us is a great planner with outstanding drive, great ideas, and exceptional record keeping abilities. The other isn't. That is not to say there is only one of us that gets inspiration and great ideas, we both do. We both work hard for the Lord. Never the less, every morning one of us would turn to the other and ask, "Is there a baptism today.
We have been called out by the elders to some of the people they are teaching. For some reason we have been blessed to be part of their baptismal challenge. One that we worked really close with was baptized on Wednesday. One group of elders started to teach her they found she was not living in her area. They turned her over to the elders that were working in the ward where she lived in. We were there and helped her realize that she had already got her answer and needed to be baptized. We offered to help with the baptism but they had two wards working on it so we were asked to attend. It was fabulous. Christy Perez was her name and she got up and bore her testimony. We were all crying. The spirit was so strong.
The other baptism that we really worked a lot with this week was Celia Magana. A member called us and asked us to teach her neighbor. We went. The lady was 75 years old and was very sweet and sincere. We met with her and found she couldn't speak three words of English. We called the Spanish Elders and they had the time available. They came and taught her the first discussion with our help. They had been on splits so the next meeting was us and one of the elders from the first meeting. On the next meeting there were different Elders. Since the Spanish Elders were District Leaders there was one meeting they couldn't attend. It was just us. We had to get a translator. She had cancer a few years ago that had gone into remission. It returned. She arranged a trip to Mexico, so she could visit her family before starting Chemo. We had set her baptismal date for mid-August. She wanted to get baptized really bad before she died, so we moved her date to Saturday August 4th. She was planning to leave for Mexico on the 6th. We knew it would be much harder when she got back. Then we found out that her family decided she needed to visit her daughter one last time, this weekend. So we moved the baptism to Thursday. Then we were told the trip may not happen. The baptism was back to Saturday. Then the doctor told her that her health wouldn't allow the trip Mexico. She was admitted to the hospital Wednesday. We went to visit her and gave her another blessing. We weren't even going to talk of baptism at that moment, but she wanted to be baptized so badly. We filled out her baptismal form beside her hospital bed. We hoped she will be well enough to make it. She has such a sweet desire. It was back to Thursday night. Then her daughter decided that she would drive up and visit her here. The traveling would have been very hard for her. So the baptism was back to Saturday. When they asked her who she wanted to baptize her, the young elders suggested Elder Sheffer. We had been the constant through all the teaching, and she was happy with that. So, Saturday morning at 4:00 Elder Sheffer was up studying the prayer in Spanish, and doing a lot of praying himself. He had hoped that Bert or Alan would be on Skype Friday night and help him out a little, but no luck. He had the Spanish Elders call and left a message so he could check his pronunciation. He worked on it with a native speaker for a while. He practiced it so much that Sister Sheffer had it down as well as he did.
Then the time came. Would she show up or have to go back to the hospital? She brought her grandson and showed up. Her daughter had to go back south to go to work and would return for the grandson on Sunday afternoon. We took some pictures and went to the service. Elder Sheffer Baptized in Español! It was wonderful. What a spirit! She was smiling so, and glowed, she seemed to be able to ignore the pain. After the service the Elders told Elder Sheffer that she had requested him to confirm her tomorrow in church. You should have seen the look on his face. After saying, "There is no way!" he said, "Okay, call me on my phone and leave me a message. I'm not sleeping tonight." They were not serious of course.
The Spanish branch had an adult party right after the baptism. It was a great time for fellowship.
Each day there are miracles and we will share move as the tender mercies come along.
God Bless Elder and Sister Sheffer
Thank you for the emails. Addison thank you for the phone message. It is saved so we can hear it again.
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