Stronger than Yesterday

Hi,

Thanks Britney! Yes, I do feel that I am stronger than yesterday. Or, on a much grander scale, I feel that I'm much stronger now than I was at the beginning of my mission. Mostly spiritually and emotionally. Maybe also physically, though I highly doubt it since the heaviest thing I carry each week is our 5 liters of boxed milk.

Uuuuh... this week! Okay, so Mark got baptized! Best part? When he showed up to his baptism lugging a 24 PACK of 32 OZ COKES to share with everyone! WHAT? It was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen. Also, he dragged those gargatuan cans of cola for at least 20 minutes. See, Mark's stronger than I am!

Albert performed the baptism -- Albert is a recent convert and this is his first baptism! He proudly announced that Mark's baptism would go down in history as "The first time a black man has baptized in this church!" (meaning our church building, which is true, because Albert is one of the first African members in Bari Libertà). Mark hadn't seen Albert for several months, because of his quick stint in Denmark, so when he saw Albert all dressed in white it was a joyful reunion. YAAAY Mark!

Sorella Bradford sang another beautiful musical number this Sunday for a baby blessing. We were specifically requested to perform at this gig because it was the first grandson of some of the first members of Bari and sacrament meeting attendance DOUBLED with all the relatives that attended. The great aunt asked us to sing a Primary song... we hemmed and hawed over some of the more "childlike" ones (I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus, A Child's Prayer, etc.), but none of them were the right combination of what we wanted. We finally settled on "He Sent His Son," mostly because, musically, it's epic. We did take into account that it didn't talk sepcifically about BEING a baby and wasn't particularly adapt, but we figured the Spirit would be there anyway.

Come Sunday: Sorella Bradford kills it, and everything goes off without a hitch. Everyone comes up to us afterward asking us who in the world told us to sing that song. We shrugged and just mumbled our weird reasons. It turns out that the baby mama and her sister sang that song years and years ago and everyone was convinced that baby mama's mom had specifically requested said song. "Nope," we said. "Just God."

Anyway, the baby was adorable. His picture is attached!

I'm out of time, so I hope the pictures are enough to satisfy!

Another day, another dollar in God's bank!
You're all champs!
love
Annie

...522: I'm cleaning a filthy baptismal font! In PANTS!
...528: Baptisee, Bishop and Baptizer: Mark, Bishop V. and Albert!
...536: Us and baby Gabriel + parents. LOOK, HE'S ADORABLE!