It is true, Brother and Sister Yang got baptized on Sunday!!! Crazy story...two weeks ago on Sunday in between Sunday school and relief society Sis. Yang and Sis. Lin were talking in Chinese to each other. Sis. Yang was inviting us over to a Chinese lunch on Friday and at the end she said that her and her husband wanted to get baptized sometime in September and wanted to know when. Sis. Lin was shocked and leaned over to tell me. I freaked out (as expected) and said NEXT WEEK! We were both blown out of the water. An investigator asking us when they could get baptized. That never happens. Later on Sunday I had to call President to ask if I could go to Gage's funeral and told him about the yangs. He was reacting like a little kid on Christmas Morning.. excited, shocked, giddy and couldn't believe it at first! On Monday after the funeral we went to visit Sis. Yang to give her the baptismal questions. She was so nervous for the interview but she passed with flying colors. During lunch on Friday we asked what caused the change of heart in which she went on to tell us they have been wanting to get baptized for a long time but were worried about the information they have heard from their friends and on the Internet about the church. The more they interacted with the members and came to church they realized everything they had heard was false. The members are actually good people and the doctrines taught in church were true. Their baptism on Sunday was very special. The spirit was extremely strong and there was great support from the ward. The primary room was packed. Mandy, their 14 year old daughter, was touched by the experience as well. She is wanting to get baptized now. We need to work with her a little bit but it will happen before the month ends. What a remarkable experience it is to bring families into the gospel. The Yangs are going to be an eternal family. This gospel changes lives on a continual basis.
Gage's funeral was such a bitter sweet experience. It was great to see the branch members as well as the McIntyre family but it was under horrible circumstances. during the drive to Annapolis I was pretty composed but the moment we pulled up to the Stake Center and saw the hearse in the parking lot I got a real sick to my stomach type of feeling. I couldn't walk into the chapel for a number of minutes, as I walked into the chapel and saw his casket I lost it. Gage was a huge skate boarder and the way his friends showed their respects was covering his casket in skate boarding stickers. Minutes before the funeral started a group of his friends went up to the casket to put their stickers on. At that moment I started bawling. The funeral service was amazing. the entire chapel was packed with non-members. A lot of Gage's friends showed up as well as extended family. President Robinson, Kent Island Branch President, and President McConckie, Annapolis Stake President who happens to be the Nephew of Bruce R. McConckie, spoke. There was such a peaceful feeling in the room. President McConckie is a very powerful speaker who has a close relationship with the McIntyres. He spoke on the resurrection and brought up a good point I would like to share. He referred to the story of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead. He said this miracle is something we were all praying would happen to Gage; he would suddenly wake up from his "sleep." But it didn't happen, instead Gage is with our Heavenly Father smiling down on us. Pres. McConckie said that when Lazarus was raised from the dead he was still subject to all kinds of diseases, bruises, scares, and uncertainties which we are surrounded with every minute of every day. Gage is never going to be surrounded by this. When Gage, and all of us, raise again from the dead, or in other words resurrected we will be perfect in every form. NOTHING will happen to us.
The week I found out about Gage's death, and things going on at home made the week hard for me. We worked anyways, it was comforting to me to know that the work much go on. The Lord blessed us with a Celestial week last week. We got amazing numbers in Member Present lessons as well as Investigators at Sacrament Meeting. We worked our hind ends off and it brought in lots of miracles. The week ended with the wonderful baptism. The Lord does provide when you continue on in righteous pursuits. We were able to find another family to teach as well as got a solid member referral.
The Udalls who live in the ward invited us over for dinner to meet their former next-door neighbor Karen. Karen is a single mom of an adorable 5 year old daughter who now lives in Pennsylvania. Karen had ordered a BOM off of the TV when she was a kid but her mom forbid her to read it. Sis. Udall built a good friendship with Karen and talked about the church with her. Karen even came to a ward activity in the summer and enjoyed herself. We had a great lesson on the BOM and she committed to read it. She was excited to have a copy of her own. Right now she doesn't go to a church but was raised catholic. She has great spirit about her. We had to rush off to another appointment so the lesson was brief but it seemed to touch her. After we left Karen watched the Restoration DVD with the Udalls and was very touched by it. She wants to continue to meet with us.
We also found another Chinese couple to teach. Kind of a funny story...Last friday was Chinese day. We had a lunch scheduled with Sis. Yang and dinner with the Cheung family ( who are obviously Chinese). Before lunch we had planned to check on a former investigator who was from China, named Han. We had called Han a couple of times but never were able to set up an appointment. We decided to stop by and he happened to be home. We had a great lesson with him. He is lost and is going through a hard time financially. He is an unemployed accountant but is able to get little side jobs from different individuals. His wife is going to nursing school and their son is in his last year in high school. He has a lot of respect for the church and enjoys the missionary visits. He seems a little uncommitted but we were able to have a good meeting with him. On Friday during companionship studies we got a media referral on our cell phone from a woman who requested a BOM while visiting temple square and guess were she is from.....CHINA! How funny is that?! On Chinese day we get a media referral from a Chinese woman! We were only able to meet her husband. He is extremely nice and is in his last year of graduate school in getting is MBA. They will be moving back to china when the school year is over. He was excited for us to meet his wife, who still is out of town visiting the west coast.
With all of this great work going on the Lord has said my work is done. I am getting transferred on Wednesday. Just as everything is picking up and the work is on FIRE I get whipped out of the area. Oh well. I'm at peace right now in knowing that the Yangs got baptized. Nothing else matters. I'm excited to see were I will be going. If I have time on Wednesday I will write a quick e-mail with my new address.
Love you all~
