Did somebody say baptism?
We had a double baptism in Skopje this week!! WOOO HOOOO! Brother
Swineford got the Hotel Arka pool for this past Saturday, which was the only
thing we were waiting. Sasho was one, and the sisters had a really sweet older
lady named Susannah. We were all pretty stressed for it, our members that were
supposed to give talks had things come up last minute, so we had to cover for
them.
Then we found out Elder Krajnc was coming back down in time
for the baptism, so Elder Prince and Chingas had to go pick him up from
Prishtina the morning of. They were bringing Sasho's baptismal suit, and they
ran into some bad traffic on the way back. And their phone wasn't working...we
were getting worried, but they still ended up making it back in time with our
favorite Slovenian!
We started the service after changing and some pictures, and
then headed up to the (freezing) pool! The best way to describe when Sasho and
I got in the water is just unreal. It took me awhile after to realize that I
actually baptized somebody! Sasho seemed to be on Cloud 9, saying he felt
fantastic and clean. After Sasho's baptism, Elder Prince baptized Susannah, and
then we finished up the baptismal service.
We went out with Sasho afterwards, when he got a call saying
that he had to work Sunday morning. It's just about impossible to have a job
here, so we're pretty lenient about working on the occasional Sunday. Sasho
said he would talk to his boss, but he would probably have to miss church and
getting confirmed tomorrow. He called us the next morning and let us know that
he for sure wasn't coming :( But it's all good, we'll just take care of it next
week!
The Swinefords are taking off to America and then Moscow
this week. We're going to miss all of them a lot. I know I'm going to miss
their two older kids always jumping on us, wanting us to be their personal
battleships. Since they are gone, we're forced to move to the new building a bit
early, even though we haven't gotten the decorations or furniture, so next week
should be interesting! There should be a lot of standing going on, haha.
This week was President Arif's first week conducting a
regular sacrament meeting, since last week we watched General Conference. He
said that he was planning on having Elder Prince speak. We called Elder Prince
Sunday morning about something else, and I asked him about his talk. He said
that he wasn't giving a talk, called President Arif a minute later and found
out he was giving a talk. It was a close call on that one! Luckily Elder Prince
is a baller and already had a talk prepared, so he was good to go. We got to
see Susannah get confirmed a member, which was super sweet!
Another golden moment of this week occurred when we were
contacting on the stone bridge. A guy walks past us, turns, and exclaims in
perfect English "Long Live Joseph Smith!" He said he was from Serbia,
but that was all we could get from him. Elder Gierisch and I got a pretty good
laugh from that.
I am so glad to be a missionary right now. I get to help
people live happier lives for a job. I know that this is God's work, and that
he loves each one of us.
Love you all!,
Elder Rigby
