Baptism Day

Crazy crazy week this week!
First it was Elder Hunter's birthday this week, so that was fun
celebrating, and then we went on exchanges with our Zone leaders.
We went to the apartment so we could change into service clothes, and
I thought we were going to clean up yards or something like that
because the snow is finally starting to disappear.
But no, we ended up bucking hay for the rest of the day.
It was AWESOME!!! It was a sunny day, and I was dressed in blue
jeans, and got to be a farm boy for a day. It was great. It was for a
horse therapy center, and the lady that ran the place was a very
active catholic, and it was great, talking to her, and getting to know
her.

Saturday was probably supposed to be a super stressful day, but I was
pretty chillax as we were getting everything ready for the baptism.
And as the hours went by we ended up running into a bunch of Samoan
members. Some of them I'm pretty sure know how to say only two words
in English "Elders. Eat" hahaha its great. (I'm pretty sure they know
more than that though. So it's ok)
The time, and Joe, went under the water and came back out.....three times....
It was quite the experience seeing a big guy fit in a little font.
The spirit was so strong, and it was amazing.

Sunday came and I about had a stress induced brain aneurism. Elder
Hunter and I were setting up the sacrament, just kind of waiting for
Joe to show up.
His girlfriend showed up.....his buddy Lico showed up....some of his
cousins showed up...but Joe didn't show up.
I about lost it.
We passed the sacrament, and I thought it was over, but in comes the
man of the hour.
And he was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints.

Continuing on...

So there has been some interesting and exciting changes this last week.
First off, I get to spend the next 5 weeks now in the YSA ward.
Secondly, our ward has totally changed. They dissolved one of the
Samoan wards and split them up and put them into the other two samoan
wards. Then, the stake president of that stake kicked out all of the
YSA that was going to the family wards and put them into our wards.
We also moved buildings this week, so with that stress of moving
building our ward also doubled in size in a week. And most of them are
samoan and its AWESOME!!!
We also got a new bishopric counselor and he is samoan and his name is
too long to say but the translation turns into Bird of Paradise. So he
is Brother Bird of Paradise to me.

We also had an eventful tracting day as well. The sisters in another
ward asked us to tract a street for them, and we ran into Pastor of
the
Nazarene church......

Hello we are missionaries for the LDS church.

Hi, I'm pastor so and so (i forgot his name)

Talk about fear. I had run into these guys a few times before, and all
of these guys want to do is bash.
He began talking about how he has been a pastor for over 30
years...crikey....this guy probably knows the Bible better than any
missionary ever.
I had so much fear,  i started sweating. It was bad.
Elder Hunter being the stud he his just starts to testify of the truth.
Then the story of Alma and Amulek went through my mind.
And I knew that I come in and seal the deal. Sooo i took and deep
breath, and bore my testimony to him. hahaha it was a very cool
experience to see how the spirit worked through that man.
Unfortunately it ended with a door in our face because his heart was
too hard. But that's ok.
At this point i was feeling kind of discouraged.....but a few doors
later elder Hunter tells me that this next door is mine...not really
feeling very enthused to continue tracting I put on my cheesy smile,
and knocked on the door. A very nice lady named Mutali answered the
door. Before I even said Hello, the spirit hit me so strong. I knew
that she was ready to accept the gospel. we had our introductions and
she started to tell us how she had been in a pretty bad car accident
earlier that day. She expressed her love for her 7 year daughter as
well, and we asked her if she would like to learn about the restored
gospel. When she said yes, my mind was blown. So we gave her
information to the sisters and that's the last ive heard so far. So I
will get some updates on Mutali.

Joes baptism is also on the 22nd and he is getting so pumped. He was
also pretty excited to have some of his samoan friends join the ward.
Yesterday was also my 5 month mark....its crazy how fast the time
goes. I feel like i left last week.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed my life. Especially as i have
seen the power it has to change the life's of everyone who come to
know of its truth.
President Thomas S. Monson only spoke for about 5 minutes. If that.
And he spoke about the Book of Mormon.
He encouraged us to read it everyday. The Book of Mormon contains the
answers to every question we could possibly ask. And I know this to be
true because i have put it to the test.
If you have any doubts or ever have doubts, I encourage you to get on
your knees and ask our Heavenly Father if it's true. And if your heart
is soft, and have faith (faith being an action word) you will receive
a witness.

I love Alaska, and am pumped to see what the next year and half brings.

Love you all,

-Elder Poppleton

My District