Elder Mckay

WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We finally conquered that Satan fellow and Jessica was baptized last night! She was so excited and was absolutely beaming when she came up out of the water. Ah, happiness! There's nothing quite like watching people change and start a REAL relationship with God. It is a very refreshing change to have God place people in your path that are truly "hungering and thirsting" after righteousness instead of just taking the gospel as a curiosity or a given. Thankfully, Bishop decided she'd waited long enough after having it postponed three times, so he confirmed her there a few minutes later. I almost forgot to take my camera since it has been sitting dormant on my shelf for so long, but luckily I remembered and we got a couple of photos after the service was over. However, I did forget to bring my camera to the library today so a picture may have to wait until next week. No worries; this forgetfullness is normal, if you recall. =P Oddly enough, I have gotten a lot better at remembering people's names now that we meet scores of them every day. You get some really unique ones here in the inner city.... TeShawn, Shenika, Dantonio, Tavarius...the list goes on.

Anyway, now we're back to square one. Chris still wants to be baptized, but is swamped with work, kid, and caring for his mom until the beginning of November so he's kind of on hold at the moment. After we discussed the Word of Wisdom, he quit his daily coffee, but after a couple days of going dry he resorted to drinking three or four Red Bull energy drinks every day. Lol, I'm not sure how much of an improvement that is, but at least he's willing to live the letter of the law. =) At least he's not alone - a bunch of the elders out here are addicted to caffeine or energy drinks of some sort. I just use peanut butter and jelly as my energy food.

So this week was interesting. Jessica texted us from the hospital on Tuesday to let us know that they had found brain tumors (yikes!) but thankfully they were not cancerous. By Friday she was feeling well enough to meet with us again and told us she was staying positive through it all. Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference and Elder Oaks of the Twelve was present. Sunday morning was actually a very good session where the stake presidency all spoke on the atonement, living consecrated/holy lives, reaching out to others, etc. It was a good thing the talks were powerful and well presented because Jessica's perfume was providing an alternative distraction that only the whole string of fascinating talks was able to pull me out of. Grrr. My companion said the same thing, so maybe I'm not the only one that is developing missionary goggles. It's weird approaching women sometimes now. We totally have a "brotherhood" thing going on which is totally opposite of my past 5 years on the college scene.

Well, I have a bunch more to write, but the computer is telling me I have a few short seconds before it will explode and erase all my work, so that's my signal to get off.

Adios!

Elder M.