“You forgot to say his name...”

Quote of the week explanation

I'm just gonna cut to the chase.

Howdy.

We've had an eventful week over here. As an astute reader may remember, the baptismal date that we had set for Jing was yesterday.

He did, indeed, get baptized.

It was a pretty crazy road to get there on time, though.

First, let's go to Thursday. We met with Jing, and went over the baptismal interview questions with him so that he would know what to expect. He did really well; but there was one minor problem that made it so we had to set up the interview with President Durham (Instead of our district leader).

That evening we called President and asked him what the proper protocol was in dealing with matters like this. He told us that the only big thing is that he would have to interview Jing personally, and asked when his baptismal date was set for.

"Sunday." I said.

There was a brief pause on the other end.

"That's awkward" President responded.

Thankfully, he was able to find a wide enough gap in his schedule on Saturday when he could conduct the interview. He told us to call another one of the Chinese Elders and tell him to come along to, so that he could translate.

Saturday rolled around, and the time for the interview came. Everybody was on time, and President warmly ushered Jing into his office. And thus, began the most stressful forty-five minutes of my mission. Although, deep down, I knew that Jing was fine and would have no problems in the interview; the irrational side of me got to thinking some wild things. I was pacing around outside the office door, hoping for the desired outcome. 

President stepped out of the office and told us that he was good to be baptized the next day. I jumped over and emphatically shook President's hand, and the rest of the day involved, in part, Elder Kendrick and I making last minute preparations for the service; printing programs, mopping the font, etc.

And then Sunday rolled around. We held the baptismal service right before church, and we had a great turnout. Almost the entire branch was there. I had the great privilege of baptizing him. I had one mishap; because I was so focused on saying the prayer right in Chinese, I forgot to say his name... (Hence, the quote of the week with our Branch President informing me of the error). So, I had to do it a second time, but other than that it was a great service. Jing seemed to really enjoy it, and he got confirmed during sacrament meeting.

It's crazy what can happen in three and-a-half weeks. What a story. The man went from asking to be baptized on the doorstep to becoming a member of the church in less than a month. The members have already taken him in as one of their own; he is part of the branch now.

It was the best of times...

It was the worst of times.

Because, right as all this starts happening, I get transferred.

I am going full-time English, for the time being, up in Concord. I will be on a bike, so that should be fun. Dang. We worked this area to the bone. This area has been known as a beast by missionaries passing through; but it was certainly a great place to be. I'm going to miss it.

Anyway, enough of "sob stories from Ben". You can get on with your lives now.

-Ben

P.S. The branch gave us missionaries little papers to write down a Christmas gift that we wanted a few weeks ago, so that the members could give us something. I literally could not think of anything to put, so I just wrote down "milk chocolate", thinking that a member could just get me a little candy. Nope. They went all out, and yesterday handed me a three-pound package of chocolate. 

P.P.S. Lord Barnaby

P.P.P.S. Once, we went to Jing's house a grumpy old Chinese man outside told us that there was nobody home. Boy, am I glad we knocked anyway.