3 baptisms in Toppenish

January 1, 2018
Remember the Book of Mormon Challenge!!!


We enjoyed 3 great baptisms this week! David's wife Precilla even came and enjoyed the baptism. We weren't 100% sure he was going to be able to make it due to the fact that his wife wasn't very happy with the idea of him being baptized and paying tithing; however, Brother Evans came with us to a lesson and we discussed putting our trust in God enough to keep all of his commandments. David committed to be baptized along with his boy Albert. Later at their baptismal interview, Bubba (his real name is Winterhawk) wanted to be baptized as well. We had an interview with him on Friday. David became thrilled because Friday night his wife expressed that she wanted to go to the baptism. 

That whole week I'd been praying very hard that God would help Priscilla and he did. He truly answers prayers. It was the happiest we had seen David. I'm very excited to be staying in Toppenish because this means David can baptize us for those who have passed in the Temple. I never thought I would be able to go the temple with David and what a great experience that will be!

The Baptism went very well we had much support from the the ward and it went very smoothly. I learned a basic truth- Baptism is the act of showing our father that we'll follow the example of Jesus Christ and keep his commandments. Receiving the Holy Ghost is when we are sanctified from sin. Because Jesus kept his baptismal covenants, he saved us. The baptism of David was pretty eventful. Bro. Evans Baptized him but it took 5 time because his head and legs kept coming up. When the 3rd time was unsuccessful Bro. Evans invited me down to help pull David back up. I went down into the water and put my arms around David to comfort him. David was pretty tense. Even with me essentially pushing his head down and then helping pulling him up it took 2 times. David was just too easy leading up to the baptism so there had to be some opposition towards the end! Elder Corrington was very happy with the baptism and so was I! For heaven's sake I baptized someone named Winterhawk-a once in a life time experience. One of the most touching moments was when his whole family walked into the church and I saw Matthew, his oldest son, wearing the coat I gave him. While Brother Evans gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to David I felt this great power in our midst. I want to give everyone what David received I don't know how to describe it. It was beautiful.

Sergio and Maria are doing well. We smacked them with a figurative hammer as we shared that we all break the commandments and become unclean and adultery is one of those commandments. They took it in stride. Mariah truly wants to be married but she wants to marry him when he has let go of his addiction. We had 2 brothers go pick up their family of 7 this week-the ward keeps supporting them incredibly. Sergio spoke up during Gospel principles that he knows he needs to reach out to his father in heaven more. Mariah, even with her screaming kids, seemed at peace. They are all feeling more at home at church and their 8 yr old boy David is excited to read the Book of Mormon we gave him-We feel that God wants us to focus on him and then the family can rally around his baptism later this month. 

Happy New Year!
Love,
Elder RIgby

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