We got the baptizing party in Far Rockaway started yesterday with the baptism of Scott Madden. It was a really nice service. His brother, David, got to baptize him and Elder Wolfe went in the font to help out. Scott has come a long way since we first met him and he is going to make a great member of this church. Hopefully this is the first of many baptisms to come here in Rockaway.
Baptism of Scott Madden Feb 2013
So let's see, this was kind of a slow week. We've been
doing a lot of lookups in Belle Harbor and not having huge amounts of
success. I think I'm expecting too much from it though. I can't expect
everybody to welcome us in their homes and want us to teach them
everything we know. We've had three people ask us to come back and teach
them something, which I think is incredible. That in itself is a
miracle because six months ago, none of these people would even open
their doors for us, let alone invite us inside to talk with them. So we
are making definite progress, it's just slower than I originally
expected it to go.
We had a cool lesson with Lisa and Terrance last
week. We've been trying to meet with him for a while to teach him the
restoration and he was there when we went by to say hello. He said that
if we had some time, we should teach him whatever we had now. So Elder
Pearce and I threw together a lesson really quickly. We decided not to
teach the Restoration because it wasn't quite the best setting for it
with their kids running around and whatnot. We decided to teach about
the Atonement because that's always a good topic for a lesson. We showed
them a talk that Jeffrey R. Holland gave called None Were With Him. I
wasn't quite sure where to go after that, so I said a quick prayer,
opened my mouth, and started talking. I really can't remember exactly
what I said to them. It was something along the lines of a promise that
the spirit that they can feel in the room with us is the same holy
spirit that testifies of truth and it will be present whenever we talk
about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he will feel it when he
attends our services on Sunday and by that spirit, he can know that we
are testifying of truth. It was really helpful because he finally
expressed to us his concerns that we're trying to convert him and he's
happy where he is. We told him that was great and our only goal is to
strengthen his faith in Christ. Lisa says that she doesn't feel
fulfilled at their church though and that's why she wants to try out the
Mormon church. So we invited her to come to our services on Sunday to
experience it for herself. I think they're both going to progress in
their own time, we just need to get them to church. She didn't come
yesterday because the snow storm moved back a wedding shower to Sunday
afternoon.
It was the heartbreak of the week for me when she
didn't come to church. But that's okay, life goes on. Through a series
of last minute and sudden events, I ended up teaching the Gospel
Doctrine class and seminary after church. It's a good thing my mother
taught me a bit about teaching seminary. Two hours is a long time to
keep these kids paying attention. But we pulled it off and headed
straight to the baptism after that.
LDS Temple in Manhatten, NY
Elder Kaleb Erickson at the NYC Temple
The baptism was really the crowning event of the
week, not too much happened aside from that. The snow storm that
apparently was supposed to be a big deal, really wasn't. We only got
like 8 inches here. Since we couldn't go out and work that night, we had
a party in the APs apartment with all the elders in Far Rock. It was a
pretty fun night.
I just keep thinking back to what I was doing a year
ago and here I am now, a 19 year old in Far Rockaway, New York, teaching
people about Jesus Christ, telling people twice my age that they need
to get married, helping people give up addictive substances, trying to
bring a message of hope to people who are really living tough, tough
lives out here. It's amazing how different my circumstances are now than
they were a year ago. Serving a mission is such an incredible
experience. I don't even know where to begin in describing everything
I've experienced and learned so far. I just know that I'm doing the
Lord's work and I couldn't be happier to be doing it.
Love,
Elder Erickson
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