Hello!
Had a baptism this week! Remember the 이상남 (9-year old kid) that I wrote about maybe one or two weeks ago? Things worked out such that it was best that he get baptized this Sunday, so we kind of had to scramble to get everything ready. Elder Jo told me that it would be a good experience for me to give it, so I did.
Didn't have time to take pictures, but a sister in the ward was acting as photographer, so I'll ask her for some, and probably just sent it back home by mail. Sorry!
The actual baptismal service went well, but the baptism itself was pretty crazy. We didn't explain about baptism very well, and so 이상남 was a little confused. I was in the water, and he came into the font. He immendiately ducked down up to his neck - he was ready to go into the water! We got ready to baptize him, but as I was getting ready to say the prayer, he started to lean back and go into the water.
I guess we never told him that we pray first? So I kind of had to hold him up out of the water (which is the exact opposite reason that I was in the water in the first place...), which other people explained what was going on. He understood, so I said the prayer, and baptized him.
He kicked his legs out of the water, so I had to do it again... as I was getting ready to pray for what felt like the 5th time, he suddenly worried about water getting into his ears, and put both hands over his ears.
There's no way that he could be baptized like that, and so people were trying to tell him not to worry, but he had his hands over his hears.
After awhile, we got things sorted out, and I baptized him. The branch president told me to use one of my legs to block his (I though for a brief moment then that it must look like I'm baptizing him using some sort of judo throw...), so no problems the second time around.
All in all, it probably took like 3-4 minutes in the water, which is much longer than it needed to be. I felt very helpless there - I don't know enough Korean to explain things well to him. Next time, we need to prepare the investigator a little better. But hey, we got a baptism in my first area!
So that's my big news or the week. Giving baptism was a little stressful - maybe someone a little older would have been easier. It was a learning experience, as they say. I felt the Spirit as I was doing the baptismal prayer though, so that's good.
Maybe another reason that it was all a little stressful is because I had to give a talk in church. Didn't have enough time to prepare it all that well (because we had a baptismal service!), so I'm not really happy with it. I did what I could with what I had I guess, but it's too bad that I couldn't give a better talk. Nobody told me that I did a good job after my talk... ;o; Next time, next time.
No time, so real quick - met with some lady who had a heart condition, and is apparently going to die soon. She's a little weird, and is obsessed with going to heaven (she's kind of known in our distirct as "the lady who is going to die soon"). She was really interested in baptism, but we kind of feel like she doesn't have a lot of real intent, if that makes sense.
It kind of feels like she thinks being baptized is an easy way to be guaranteed to go to heaven, and that's why she's so interested; not because she has faith or really believes what we've taught, or whatever.
Needless to say, she's kind of a hard investigator to work with. On one hand, we need to teach her quickly because she's sick, but on the other hand, we don't want to baptize her if she doesn't have faith. I guess we'll see where she goes as we continue teaching her...
Thanks for all you do! Thanks for your prayers! I'll work hard.
Love,
- Elder Luke
Note:
이상남: I Sangnam, the boy's name.
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