Samuel was baptized

Fam & Friends,

Samuel was baptized yesterday! That is awesome to finally say. It was such an awesome experience. A big weight was lifted right from my shoulders the second he stepped into that font. Elder Rivera baptized him and I was able to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. A very special moment. God works in weird ways...Elder Rivera and I finally got our baptism together that we planned for back in Des Moines. Fast forward 9 months and it finally happened. It was also great to see all the Young Men there supporting him and welcoming him to the fold. They provided the whole baptismal program, talks, prayers and music...such a cool thing to see. Another highlight (if the baptism wasn’t enough already) Samuel’s mom, Yguette, and aunt, Novi, not just came to the baptism but came to church as well. Their hearts were touched by the Spirit, not surprised, and were showing quite a bit of interest in cooking back to learn more. It was so cool to see Samuel testify to them about God answering prayers when we were talking to them as a family. He’s paving the way for them to follow him into the font, making these first baby steps towards an eternal family.

Our man Grant also made it out to Samuel’s baptism. He came to check it out and see for himself what we’re all about. The bishop ‘just happened’ to be busy right after church so the baptism was later than we were expecting. This delay just happened to be a perfect time for Grant to come straight from work to church. Divine design? Earlier in the week, we were able to stop by his house and talk more with him about everything. We got there and we knew he had mentioned that he had read a little from the Book of Mormon but we didn’t know how much. We were expecting the usual, a couple pages or so. Well 53 pages later, he said he finished 1 Nephi and is good about everything that he’s reading. We kinda just sat there and let it soak in that he just plowed through it and still is continuing to plow through it. We showed him Elder Bodnar’s “Pattern of Light” videos to help him understand how God will answer him. He said the closing prayer and it was powerful to say the least. He called the powers of God down as he asked right there for a confirmation about the Book of Mormon. CHILLS. He also just casually mentioned before we left how he found the “Joseph Smith: the Prophet” movie online and was planning on watching that too... Just another little moment where we both sat there with no idea how to react but instead asked ourselves in the car driving home where has Grant been our entire missions? LOL D&C 29:7

Katrina is still being a little lazy and nervous to quit. She knows it’s all up to her and her decision to quit. Elder Jarvis and I were pretty firm with her about the importance of making this decision sooner rather than later. The Spirit did all the work and after refusing to let us throw everything away and holding off on a blessing, she said, “Trust me on this you guys. I can do this. Just trust me.” So we are going to trust herald send all our prayers her way to help her out.

Also got a call from President last night saying to pack my bags to head back to Des Moines. I’m going to miss Waterloo so much...

Love you all so much, hit the slopes for me soon!
1 down, more to come!

Elder Christensen

Eternal Families

My man, Jacques

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