Great Baptisms :)

Family and Friends,

Two weeks ago on conference weekend we had a great baptism for Michele Galaraga. We had the baptismal service right after the second session on Saturday in the Stake Center so the majority of the zone was all there together. It was a great service and right as Michele left the water she had a huge smile on her face and was radiating. The following Sunday she shared her testimony and said that when she was baptized she had the most incredible feeling of warmth and happiness and that she had never felt anything like that in her life before. :) My companion and I sitting there were both stoked to hear that, and I leaned over and told him that she must've had a super powerful missionary baptize her... haha honestly its one of the best feelings in the world to see someone that you've taught and worked with for so long get up and bear their testimony. :) It reminded me a lot of how great I felt in Albonor when Roberto shared his testimony shortly after his baptism and wow... there are few other feelings like it trust me. :)

This last Saturday we had another very special baptism of Jorge Luis Briones (he's the guy on the right thats so happy he can't open his eyes right haha). He is the boyfriend of Joanna (girl in the blue standing in front of him) who is a great member that comes from a family of powerful people who are all way involved in missionary work. :) They are always giving us lots of referrals and helping out with visiting investigators and being their friends. :) Very valuable for missionaries indeed. Anyway, I remember that Jorge Luis started listening to us all the way back in February my very first week here in Portoviejo and then for about a month and a half he stopped listening to us... then out of nowhere he showed up and said he had been reading the Book of Mormon, knew that it was true, and he wanted to get baptized... we didn't argue with him! He's a great guy and it was great to see how happy he and Joanna looked together yesterday in church. Lots of faith-filled prayers by Joanna were finally answered this weekend and I have no doubt that they will go to the temple next week and be an eternal family. :)

I recently shared some advice with my mom about how to get youth involved in church activities... it was written very quickly and is very goofy but I think it'll be of great help to leaders trying to involve the youth more. Obviously it isn't relevant to the majority of readers here but for those of you who are interested and could benefit from such advice you can send my mom an email requesting it and she'll be sure to send it to you. :) I hope it helps!

Remember that wickedness never was happiness. All of us have little sins that we like and don't want to let go; gossiping, cheating in school, inappropriate music, bad TV shows, and many other things that we know we shouldn't do but we ignore that little voice in our head, convince ourselves that its fine, and do it anyway. Such actions will always bring consequences of pain and regret while the action of repenting and changing will bring peace of mind and happiness. As Nike says.. just do it :) and you'll be happy you did. There is no feeling like the feeling of a clean conscience trust me. :)

Love,

Elder Remington