Two wonderful baptisms Sunday

The field is white already to harvest...
Amalia's baptism in the Spanish Branch on Sunday with her son, Renzo who baptized her
Rosa's baptism in the Spanish Ward on Sunday with her fellowshipper Jose who baptized her

Elder Draper enjoys a little treat on Halloween to top off a month full of teaching and hard work...and after a lot of prayer and perseverance, the blessings came!

Home made tortillas - oh and I spy the pumpkin halloween lights I sent him in the back ground

HELLO FAMILY!!!!

Wow what a weekend and week! First transfer news: I am staying here in the central as the lone zone leader with Elder Dutson, and I could not be more excited! Wow we are so happy, I have really come to love Elder Dutson. We get along perfectly and we have made some BIG plans for this next transfer, so we are pumped to be together and make things happen. Elder Brandon is still the district leader here in the Spanish branch and Elder Nielson is going back up to the west area to be the second district leader. They will be such a great support.

No it didn't snow yesterday but on Friday morning it snowed for like 15 minutes, very lightly, so I guess you can count it as the first snowfall. It is really has not gotten terribly cold yet, still sunny but with a cold wind. I am happy about that haha. Saturday night we dropped by the ward Halloween party for a few minutes but had to leave pretty quick to go meet with Amalia. Halloween was pretty fun day for us. After pday we changed and went out to Fatburger and brought it back to the house to eat...it is one of only 2 in the whole city, and I had no idea it was here! That was the best treat we got for sure and it tasted just like the ones at home. Then we just went back and hung out really, watched a church movie and had a great night.

But of course the highlight of the week was the baptisms of Rosa, Manuel, and Amalia! Rosa has progressed sooo much in just 2 weeks and it was so much fun to see that. She actually moved up north yesterday, so President Archibald told us to baptize her into Crescent View, rather than the branch here in downtown. So it was interesting that we were able to go up there to baptize her into my old ward. Her baptismal service was shared with Manuel Reyes, the father of a member Emmanuel Reyes. Rosa's fellowshipper, Jose, had to dunk her about 5 times because her dress kept popping up out of the water. So that baptism was at 5:00, and of course it started at 5:20. Amalia's baptism started at 6:30, so at about 6:10 we had to speed down to the Foothills stake center, about a 30 minute drive, to make it on time. We finally got there and everybody was waiting for us, so we took a quick picture with her and the service started right away. The Spirit was so strong and I had a really special experience. We were standing at the top of the stair case in the font, so we had like a side view of the baptism. As her son was saying the baptismal prayer, they were looking right into each other's eyes and I don't know why but that was such a powerful manifestation of the Spirit. I'm sure the veil was very thin and that her husband was there too. What a powerful moment. Seeing the gospel change the countenance of Amalia was one of the best experiences of my mission. Right when she came up out of the water, with a grin from ear to ear, she said "I'm a Mormon now!" Man what a day. It was crazy trying to get everything to run smoothly and to make it to both baptisms, but it all came together for a very successful day. We are still working with a few families and getting them to meet with us.

Other than that things are going so well and we are so excited for this next transfer! Thanks for all of your love and support and prayers and packages! Have a great week!!!

Hey Nick! Haha your picture with the pajamas made me lol! It looks like you have grown a little bit lately...nice! Nice work on the field...do they have you playing foward or midfield? Yeah when the Lord sends you on a assignment to preach the gospel in a certain language, He always gives you extra help. Yeah so keep working hard so we can speak Spanish together in less than 7 months! It'll go by quick. Keep up the good grades and have a great week!

Con amor,

Elder Draper