No. 13: A precious soul entered into the water of baptism, March 8th, 2015.

I remember the first time we saw Manny, he was walking into the apartment building where we were going to meet with our investigator. He helped us to open the door and Sister Kemp, a wonderful member missionary talked to him about the church and missionaries. I took his contact information and contacted him few weeks later with Sister Sudweeks.

              (My first week in Oakville, found out Sister Kemp came from the same province as my Mum)
​The first lesson was in Wimpy's Diner restaurant. It was loud but we prayed hard for the spirit to be in the lesson. It's hard when he kept on bashing our points, and he was the person we least expected to be baptized. But as time goes by, we never give up on helping him to learn of his Heavenly Father's love.We had to exercise patience of course, but we knew that he need the gospel. Members of the ward was awesome, they continually fellowship him and helped him to feel comfortable attending church and invited him over their home for dinner and special occasions.

                                         (With my beautiful companion, Sister Sudweeks)

​Slowly he opened up and started to share more about his feelings and experiences. But he is still not ready for baptism. One day, Sister Sudweeks and I decided to call him and ask him about his Book of Mormon reading. He missed our call and then he called us back (Which we missed. Phone tag, LOL!) and left us a voicemail that said "Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful sisters in Christ. Sorry I missed your call." We called him and He told us he read 3 Nephi 18. We were talking in the phone about his understanding of the chapter, and he suddenly said "I want to be born again" And we said "What?" "I want to be born again Mormon", he replied. We were shouting with joy in our hearts but were pretending to be calm in the phone. I still can't believe he decided to be baptized! We met him 45 minutes later and ask him about his decision. He said he read The Book of Mormon and he felt the spirit.

     (I stole his coffee from his cabinet and he never bought another coffee ever since. Selfie~!)

​On March 7th, we called him to tell him that we are not going to his friend's party but in the phone we can't understand him and we thought that he was drunk! We hurried to his friend's house and found out that he never drink a single sip of alcohol! His friends were drinking but he stayed with the church's standard and kept the Word of Wisdom! It brought peace and joy to our heart, he truly is prepared for his baptism! On March 8th, he wore his baptism attire and Brother Kemp, husband of Sister Kemp baptized him. Sister Sudweeks and I got to perform a special musical number of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". We practised that song before we met Manny. We did not know why, but now we knew. It was for Manny. He is special. He is truly loved by his Father in Heaven. I know it, and I can feel it. The gospel is wonderful. Simple but powerful. =)

 (From left: Sister Kemp and her grandson, Sister Sudweeks, Manny, Brother Kemp, and me! Let's march to Zion! =)  )

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Love,

Sister Yeap

9th March 2015