Sunset

I wish the pictures could show how beautiful the sunset really is.  Dell took this picture from the deck of the mission home.  We have some glorious sunsets.

It is so neat how we belong to the Church and it is all around the world.  President interviewed a man from the middle east for baptism.  He speaks some English but he had been taught by missionaries speaking Farsi over the phone who were in Los Angeles.  They came up for the interview so that they could translate.  He was baptized last Saturday along with a young adult from the YSA ward.  The meeting was held in the chapel.  All talks were translated into Farsi.  It was pretty amazing.  The missionary spoke Farsi when baptizing him and then said it in English.

This gentlemen has been in the states only 3 months.  He feels that he came here to find the Church.  The president had to interview him because he was Muslim.  If a person is planning on returning to his country, it is counseled not to get baptized in the Chruch.  His comment is if I go back, I will be killed any way.  He is a very sweet man.  His wife attended the baptism and sacrament meeting the next day for his confirmation.  

After those baptisms we met the Stake President and his wife (of the man's stake) for dinner.  We couldn't spend a lot of time because we had two more baptisms that were at the Spanish branch.  It was conducted in Spanish and English but the talks were all in Spanish.

The missionaries like to do object lessons for a message after having dinner with members or investigators.

They showed me a couple while waiting for interviews with the president.

 The board represents the cross, the one nail in the board represents Christ, and the other nails are the sins of all of us.

You can see Christ carries all of our sins.

This rat trap is used to demonstrate faith.  With a pencil the spring is touched and it goes off.  While the companion is reading a scripture the other missionary releases the spring so when touched it won't hurt.  The people are promised the trap will not hurt them.

FYI -- this month are interviews.  It takes 11 days to complete them.  We've done all but 3.  Next week we go up north and will be there for four days as we also have stake conference in San Luis Obispo on Saturday and Sunday. 

While the missionaries are waiting for their interview I get to visit with them.  This go around of interviews they each received a ___________ (you need to look up Mosiah 4:16)

It was fun to see their reactions as most of them had a chuckle.  The hope is every time they see a succor they will remember our experience and Mosiah 4:16.