An Amazing Weekend

Stock photo from lds.org

Today was the culmination of an amazing weekend.  Our ward had 8 confirmations to start our Sacrament meeting as 8 of the 9 people baptized on Friday and Saturday were confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  This has been an amazing journey.  The Elders (Keller & Bowman, Stephens & Boss) have been working very hard to prepare these people for baptism, but it hasn’t just been their efforts alone in this process.  The members of our ward have been stepping up and assisting in very meaningful ways as well.  It’s been great to have my weekly meeting with the Elders and learn that not only are the assigned brethren showing up for the weekly team-up, but that both brothers and sisters of the ward have been stepping up to assist in teaching at times other than Tuesday.  With Ben going through his pain management program and he and Jennifer being gone until after 7 on those three days during the week, I haven’t been able to go out with the Elders when they’ve called.  I’ve felt bad, but they’ve understood.  I come home, have to put dinner together, race over to the school to pick up Isaac and Xavier from football practice, drop Xavier off and return home either just ahead or right behind Jennifer and Ben.  It appears, however, that other members have gone in my place when the Elders have asked and that has been wonderful.

I was able to conduct the baptismal service held Friday night, but there was a moment when I wasn’t sure if this would actually happen.  I had brought church clothes to work, planning to change just before I left for the day, but some last minute work projects made me run a bit past the time I had planned to leave; I had no time to change and then realized I needed to get gas before I got on the freeway L.  I was able to leave a half hour early from work in the hopes that I would be able to make the 5 p.m. start time for the baptisms.  The last several Friday’s traffic has been good, not great, but with minimal slowdowns.  Not so on this Friday.  By the time I reached the 210/15 split, traffic ground to a 25 mph crawl.  Oh, the humanity!

I called Jennifer to let her know what has happening.  My commute became a slow motion nightmare as I watched the clock on my dashboard move closer to 5 o’clock and realized I wasn’t going to make the meeting on time.  Just as I was about to call Jennifer again, she called me.  By this time, traffic had finally loosened to a point where I was traveling at almost normal speeds.  My prospects of arriving on time, however, were non-existent.  I knew I was going to be 15 to 20 minutes late.  When I finally pulled into the parking lot of the church building, I learned that others who were going to be part of the program had also been caught in the traffic mess coming up the pass.  Also, the Rodriguez family, who were scheduled to be baptized that day, had been experiencing problems with their van and the Elders weren’t sure if they were going to make it or not—they didn’t, but were baptized the next day.  I’m grateful that Keyon and Lashele Ward, Suse Bissonnette and those in attendance weren’t upset we started 30 minutes late.  The service was good; the Spirit was there in abundance; and everything turned out very well. J

One of the bonuses of the baptisms was their location.  Elder Stephens & Boss were having a difficult time securing a site because of either preparations for or plans surrounding the Women’s Conference broadcast on Saturday.  Finally, they had to turn to the Hesperia Stake and found the Hickory building to be available.  I served in Hesperia during my mission.  One of the wards my companionship was assigned to (I don’t recall which at the moment) met in the Hickory building.  I might possibly have entered that ward building once not long after my mission, but if not, I hadn’t been inside the building since I was transferred from Hesperia to Mira Loma.  The memories were thick in that room for me.

After the service, I was standing in the hallway and had a moment when I almost expected a younger version of myself, wearing a black, lightly pinstriped Mr. Mac suit, to appear around the opposite corner and come walking down the corridor.  What would I have said to him?  I wouldn’t have wanted to disrupt the space-time continuum and give out too much information.  Still, I could see the me of today telling my missionary self to not let go of the gospel because of the wonderful blessings that would come later on if I remained faithful.  Those blessings, like the one experienced today, would help to shape who I am today and continue to mold who I want to become in the future. J