WEEK 26

Hello, everyone!

 

How are you all doing? I am well and things in Petaluma are going good. A lot has happened in the past week -- which I will review shortly -- and a lot lies ahead in the week to come. For one, we were hoping to have a baptism service for an awesome family (the O'Keefes) who we have been visiting with for the past week. The family is facing a few challenges that they want to address before they make the commitment to be baptized and they have not yet come to church. Three people in the family of four have a simplex in which skin blisters develop in response to minor injury. Basically, they have three layers of skin while the average human is said to have about seven.

 

They are an amazing family though and they came across the church through its website. The mom was searching for a church that her and her family could attend, which had similar beliefs to her. They then ordered a few materials and we have been visiting with them since. They love all that we teach and I know that they will be prepared in time to reach their goal of being baptized on May 7th.

 

Yesterday, my companion and I were actually able to watch two people be baptized. I cannot go into much detail about Della Mae and Cheryl since I did not teach them, but the services were great to be part of. What was most impressive was to see Della Mae's contribution to her own baptism. The service was at 6 PM and the people from the previous baptism ended up draining the font, which meant that time and preparation was to needed in order to prepare for the next service. Well, miscommunication happened somewhere and there was about 30 minutes to fill up a font that usually takes 45-60 minutes, chairs to set up, and a program to make copies of. While everyone was frantically working, Della Mae kept filling up a big bowl and running back and forth to the kitchen in order to help fill up the font. It was inspiring to say the least.

 

As for Jeremy, we are still working with him but we will not see him for a couple weeks. He is traveling to Ohio to spend a week with his father for the Passover celebration. We simply continue to challenge him to truly commit and be serious in "testing his theory" as to whether God is there and to assume that what we say (as ridiculous as it may seem to him at times as an agnostic-atheist) may conceivably be true.

 

And my time is just about up. I was hoping to share more, but I'll end on wishing each and every one of you a Happy Easter. I'm sorry that I cannot spend it with you all, but I hope that however you spend your time and those you do spend it with bring you much hope and happiness. Take great care! I wish you all well, have a great week.

 

- Elder Gallegos