Conference and a baptism

All week long, all I could think was "Conference, conference, conference.  Why can't it just be conference already."  It was a.... hmmmm... harder than normal week.  And all I wanted was to sit in a room and watch 10 hours of conference!  Haha, well luckily, Saturday finally came and wow, wasn't it worth it?

I don't want to get all sappy, so I'll withhold all the good details, but I will say that I love this church.  I love this Gospel.  And conference was just what I needed to remind myself of the gospel's truthfulness and recommit myself to following the Lord.  We have a Prophet on the earth leading us in the same exact church that has been on the earth from day 1 - how cool is that!?  It's so happy to know this truth, and it's so sad to think that there are people in the world that simply don't know about it.  

That's why I'm a missionary.

Elder Uchtdorf's talk was my favorite for this point.  Our church, it's missionaries, it's temples, leaders, organizations, ins, outs, ups, downs, etc - they all exist because the church is TRUE.  We are part of the ETERNAL plan of our Heavenly Father - it's FULL of happiness, joy, and peace.  There is nothing negative about it.  So I'm a missionary for this church not to get stats, numbers, or just fulfill my 2 years because that's what Mormons do - but to bring people to the Gospel so they can be part of God's plan for them.  It's that simple.  And it's AWESOME.

So as you can tell, I loved conference.  The only thing that could top conference would be actually witnessing somebody join God's plan through being baptized.  Well, luckily, there was one.  Sunday night, just 3 hours after conference ended, the sister missionaries in our area had a baptism for one of their investigators and it was incredible.

Their investigator is 22 years old and has really struggled with the idea of baptism for a long time.  Yet, overtime she came to understand why it's so important and finally was baptized yesterday.  As part of the baptismal service, all of the missionaries sang the primary song "When I am baptized" for a special number.  It was so sweet because during the last verse, the girl being baptized opened up a songbook while she was sitting down and starting singing along with us, with tears streaming down her face.  Then, after she was baptized, we all sang primary songs together for about 20 minutes.  It was beautiful, there's just no other way to put it.  

I know this church is true and I can't wait until I have the opportunity to see one of my own investigators make the eternally significant decision to be baptized and join God's one true church.

Wish me luck for the last week of the transfer!  

Elder Graf