Sister Baylee Anne Kendrick: What a week!!

Hey! Hey!!

Okay, so it’s not a legend!! It’s the cold hard truth!! The week before a baptism is the craziest of craziest weeks. If something could go wrong it does, and anything and everything gets thrown in your direction! But all and all it always ends up working out one way or another :) I won’t go into the nitty gritty, but this week was one for the books!

For the majority of the week, we were spending time with Karla. She had a interview with President Bingham on Tuesday. While she had her interview, we talked with Sister Bingham and the member that had brought Karla. We were having a grand time getting to know one another and swapping stories, when it started to dawn on me that Karla and President had been gone a long time. An hour went by, then an hour and a half, two hours. Sister Kendrick and I were getting a little worried. Finally, a little over two hours, and they came out. We got the good to go! Karla and President Bingham really connected and he was able to help her through a lot. She was more ready and excited than ever for her baptism!

The next day we were able to take Karla to go buy a dress (funded by the one and only greatest mom on the earth). When I told her my mom wanted to buy her a dress for her special day, she started to cry. She was so so so happy!! What I didn't know at that moment was that Karla didn't own a dress or a skirt. When she first tried it on, she said, "oh my goodness I look like ... I look so ... I look like so pretty!! I look like a woman”. It was a lot of fun to see here smile!!

So since I’m on her I might as well tell you about the baptism. It was amazing! it was so so so good!! Her mom and 2 sisters came so that was really cool! The Hermanas translated the entire program and taught Karla’s mom the first discussion. That was cool! When it was time for the baptism, everyone was herded into the room and then we were just waiting for her to come down into the font. It seemed to me forever but I asked the elders and they said it was maybe a min. I ran into the bathroom to see what was happening, if she had gotten lost on her way to the font ( well that is what I had hoped because in my head there was one of two reasons why she wasn’t in the font 1)she got lost or 2) she didn't want to be baptized). Needless to say, I was panicking just a little bit. When I walked into the bathroom, she was crying. I grabbed and gave her a hug ( ok now I was sure she wasn't going to go through with it). I asked her what was wrong and she said,

K: I just feel like crying

SK: like a good crying or a bad crying?

K: well I think that I’m just feeling the spirit so strong right now that I just want to cry

SK: well Karla your right. That is the spirit and it’s telling you that what you are about to do is what Heavenly Father wants you to do, so get you little butt in that font and get baptized. What are you waiting for?? (ok so maybe I should have gone about that a little differently but hey it is what it is haha)

It was so cool!! She was baptized in Spanish so that her mom could understand what was going on. It was amazing, and then she got up and shared her testimony with us. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong!

The Thursday before her baptism, we had a lesson with Karla. We went over how the baptism would go with the member couple whose husband was going to baptize her. We also went over what a testimony was and how to help it grow. It really is the primary answers: Pray, read your scriptures, go to church, live the commandments, that make all the difference in the world.

After the lesson, we dashed over to the stake center in Buffalo Grove for the mini-missionary fire side. There we were assigned a mini missionary, which is a youth from the stake 16 or over who serves a mini-mission for a few days during the summer. We got Sister Meza, who was a ton of fun and so excited for the work. We had a blast with her this weekend, and got to teach the Three major missionary lessons to investigators and members! Hopefully she still wants to go on a mission after living it with us in such a crazy week... we had lots of fun!!

Well I as much as I hate that Sister Grant is going home tomorrow, I will get a new companion so that should be a lot of fun!!! I will be training her so lots and lots of prayers that I don't mess it up:) I don't know what her name is yet but, I’m excited either way!!!

We told Gail that I was training and she was like KENDRICK???? Oh that poor poor girl!!)

Needless to say, she is doing really good too haha, oh and Mr. Sheffield came to church!! Life is good!