Sister Annie Fuller: One and One and One is Three

The Bealtes are good at math!

This week BARI had THREE BAPTISMS: Sandra, Lewis, and Destiny (only one of those is a woman and it's not Destiny). It was weird when I woke up on Saturday morning because I realized... "Hey! This baptism thing! This is why we're here!" and it made it really exciting. I feel that often I have to come up with psychological mind games to help myself keep going even if baptisms aren't springing up left and right. But then... whoa! You have a baptism! These things do happen! And they are spiritual and powerful and sometimes you can only appreciate it when other missionaries are in charge of the baptism. Anyway, just some musings.

But, again, the coolest part is not the baptism, but the true conversion that you see. In this case, I saw it with Lewis the following Sunday. He showed up in all white (BOSS, and not Hugo). The Gospel Principles teacher was absent so we pulled out a topic on the spot: prayer. We went through the what, why and how of prayer. Africans often pray a certain way (I may have mentioned this. Usually it involves starting, "In Jesus name we pray" and invoking the "blood of Christ to cover this church" and not exactly a recited prayer, but usually very similar.... like Mormon prayers on the food, I suppose). We talked about how when we pray we usually start with "Dear Heavenly Father," then express thanks, praise, ask questions, and requests and then conclude with "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Lewis said, "I am glad you talked about this! I was noticing you pray differently. I want to know: is it wrong the way I pray?" And we explained that it wasn't wrong, because as long as he was praying to God, in the name of Christ, there was nothing wrong. But he said, "I like how you start talking to God, because he is the most important. And then put Jesus at the end." And then Lewis concluded the lesson with the most beautiful prayer. It was great. Also, I was able to translate their blessings and confirmation of the Holy Ghost because they were given in Italian. That was fun.

We performed a musical number in church this week. Sister Bradford's mom, if you are reading this, know that the ward went WILD! They all love your daughter's voice. She sang "I Feel My Savior's Love" in Italian and immediately after the sacrament meeting got two requests for future musical numbers.

Guess who's back from Denmark? MARK! I just realized... denMARK. Bwhahahahaha! Anyway, he still has the same baptismal date set (for this upcoming week) and he has made a TON of progress, so we might be able to help Mark get to the waters of baptism after all (calling it "the waters of baptism" makes it sound like a euphemism for a bodily function). That might be coming up next week, details pending!

So remember how we were supposed to present "Mormons" in a university presentation this week? It ended up falling through, but we were able to meet with the professors and the bishop's wife to reschedule for October. The meeting went fantastically. These professors are FANTASTIC. One of them really wants to make this presentation an informative and enlightening lecture for his students and moved it in interest of that (since it's currently the end of school/exam season/students leaving/etc.). In October, he says there will be lots of students, fresh, ready, curious and it will go great! Also, they LOVED the fact that they could just talk via email with a "bishop" (the professor said it would be impossible to ever just email a Catholic bishop) and that his own WIFE came to talk to them (married clergy is a pretty big deal for Italians).

But the presentation we prepared will not go to waste. We're going to give a presentation open to the public at our church in the next few weeks.

Bari's great. For as hard as it was at the beginning, I'm am glad I had to stay here for four transfers. I feel that it was really in this last transfer that the fruits of my labors are becoming apparent. I don't know why it took so long, but I'm glad I was here. I think I would still be ready to be transfered, but at the same time... I'm not filled with dread at the thought of staying another transfer. So, progress! But. I also think I would like to be transferred. Haha, yes. We shall see. I think transfer week is going to come sooner than expected this time around!

Okay, I think that's all for now. I love all of you!

Peace,

Annie

...418: Look, I'm being translated!