Sofia's Baptism

The story began a few weeks ago when I was on exchanges with one of the office elders. We really didn’t have any meetings setup so we started to call families on the ward list that looked like they had a few kids. One family told us that we could come over and have a lesson with them. We found out that the 9 year old girl, Sofia, and the 10 year old boy, Koril, were not baptized. This week after President Lawrence's zone conference we didn’t expect anything less than a miracle. This families name popped back into our thoughts so we tried calling them, one, two, three, four times and no answer. They live in a little town about 15 minutes from our apartment by bus so we decided to head out there. We took the wrong bus it was already starting to get late we knew we were in the right town just the wrong part of it. I thought I recognized some of the buildings so we started walking we talked to people along the way and one lady told us that we needed to get on another bus and that we would end up at the building we were looking for. I think that we waited for the bus five times as long as we were actually on it. We were only on the bus for two stops, we could have gotten there faster if we would have just walked!! Well we got off and it appeared that we were still in the wrong part of town but we walked about a block and I remembered where we were. Right about that time we ran into the dad of the family that we were going to visit. It was too late go to his home for a visit so we got his number, he was excited to see us. We went over the next day and taught the plan of Salvation.. We started talking about the commandments that Heaven Father gives us here on earth and how He wants to bless us. We asked everyone in the room to raise their hands that had been baptized. The two kids didn’t raise their hands and we asked them why. They said that they had to be 12. "WHAT!!!!! You could be baptized tomorrow if you want!" So right there and then we started to plan their baptism. They are so excited and it makes me so happy. It makes me happy that this family can one day go to the temple together and be sealed for all of time and eternity.

Follow up: The baptism was neat, Sofia's dad was able to baptize her and it truly touched the hearts of the whole family. The dad came up to us after and just kept thanking us. We told him thank you for raising such good children and that this was a step towards making their family eternal. It is an experience that I will hold close to me. This baptism was the answer to not only my prayers but the prayers of this father. Sometimes all we have to do is ask, I am convinced that there are so many people out there just waiting to be asked to come closer to Heavenly Father, and they will. People are waiting for the familiar message of the Gospel to ring though their ears and deep into their hearts. We all accepted this plan before we came to this earth and we were all saved for this time that it is so very important to have the Gospel and live by its teachings. (Koril will be baptized in the near future)