My First Baptism!

Hey Ya'll!!!
Wow what a week! Oh how I love being a missionary!!!! So first off I am sure y'all are dying to hear about the BAPTISM!!! Well, like I said last week- the week before the baptism is a killer- and we sadly had a casualty. Toby did not get baptized yesterday. His mom talked to Shaun on Thursday and said she just didn't feel Toby was ready. Well that didn't go over well with Toby- he told his mom how badly he wants to be baptized and why he wants to be baptized. Well we got a phone call late Thursday night saying that Toby's mom gave permission for Toby to be baptized next Sunday as long as Shaun doesn't perform the baptism. So sadly we have to play by her rules because technically Shaun has no rights over Toby- he's not really his kid. Shaun married Toby's mom while she was pregnant with Toby so Shaun raised him, but legally he is not his dad, his real dad died. So anyway all is well though because Toby will be getting baptized on Sunday the 12th.

But now onto the exciting part... CLARISSA GOT BAPTIZED!!! Woot Woot! It was so amazing,the poor girl cried all day long. :) Throughout the baptism she was just in steady tears. After she came up out of the water, Sister Johnson and I were standing there with a towel and she gave us big wet hugs with the biggest smile on her face! I loved it! I asked her how she felt and she said "CLEAN!!" Oh man what a day that was for me. The coolest part though was when we were sitting there listening to the Baptism talk and my mind started wandering, we had a tv set up that we used for while Clarissa was changing, and so I was staring at it and I saw my reflection. As I look at my reflection, a 22 year old girl with a white shirt and a black name tag sitting next to a smiling girl in a white jumpsuit I flashed back to my own baptism. I remembered myself sitting in the front row smiling all big with my daddy sitting next tome in a white jumpsuit. I thought about what that little 8 year old girl would have said had she have known how things would have turned out. Me sitting there witnessing a baptism of another special soul who I HELPED to come unto Christ. How special this all really is!!! I am so grateful that I was given the privilege of having such a hard mission and having to wait 11 months to have a baptism. I appreciate that sacred ordinance of baptism so much more now than I would have had I gotten on my mission and right away started baptizing. I also learned avery powerful lesson as I struggled through the first 10 months of my mission trying so hard to help someone towards baptism. -THIS IS THE LORD'S WORK!!!- Without him, well it's not possible. In order to help bring His children unto the waters of baptism I have to forget myself completely. I wasn't able to do that when I first came on my mission but through my trials and struggles I have grown!!!! What a blessing it was for me to help Clarissa to be baptized- she was the person I was sent to Pleasanton to teach- I know it!!! There is a purpose for everything here in the world- a learning opportunity at every turn and I am so grateful that I am able to begin to recognize the lessons that I have learned and the reasons the Lord has put certain people and situations in my path. So some of you might recall me telling you that my mission president told me that he sent me here to Pleasanton with a purpose. There was a reason I am here, he didn't know what it was, but he felt so strongly that this was where I was supposed to be. He also told me that I would learn things here in Pleasanton that would help me for the rest of my life, once again he didn't know what it was but he felt strongly about it. This week I saw this all come true!!! Not only in the baptism of Clarissa, but also in a series of experiences that I have had these past two transfers all culminating in an experience that I had this weekend.

The biggest and most amazing lesson I have learned here in Pleasanton is how to recognize the promptings of the spirit. Someone once asked me, "can you tell the difference between your own thoughts and the spirit?" At the time I had to answer, no. Because I honestly couldn't, but now I can and it is the most amazing blessing that my Father in Heaven has given me as a result of serving a faithful mission. This weekend we were up in Floresville and late in the afternoon I started getting a real bad feeling but I didn't know why. The day progressed and turned to evening and we ended up driving back to Pleasanton to have dinner at our apartment. As we were eating dinner this feeling came to me that we needed to go see Clarissa, this feeling pushed the bad feeling out of me that had been with me since late afternoon and I knew that this prompting to see Clarissa was from the spirit. I was really confused because we had talked to Clarissa earlier in the day and she was fine. But there was no doubt in my mind that this was a prompting and so I faithfully decided that we needed to stop by Clarissa's house. I then began thinking about what to teach her or share with her- another thought popped into my mind, Sister Johnson's song. Well my companion Sister Johnson likes to write songs on my guitar and recently she changed the words to an old country song and it turned out really cool and pretty spiritual and so I asked her if she wouldn't mind bringing my guitar and playing this song for Clarissa. She said ya no problem. So just as I was locking the door to leave the apartment Sister Johnson ran back in real quick and grabbed a paper. I asked her what it was- it was a talk she had asked Sister Partridge to print out the day before and it was about marriage and the Law of Chastity. I asked her why she brought that, she told me that she felt avery strong prompting that she was supposed to bring it. So off we went to Clarissa's with a spiritual cowboy song, my guitar and a ten page talk on Chastity by Jeffery R. Holland. We pulled up to Clarissa's house and her car wasn't there, I got a thought in my head automatically that was a whispering from the spirit -go to Vanessa's- so I listened. I drove to Vanessa's house (Clarissa's member friend who introduced her to the gospel) and sure enough Clarissa's car was there. So we grabbed the talk and the guitar and went to the house. They let us in and all gathered 'round as I explained that we had no idea why we were there but the spirit had told us to come. Vanessa, Raymond and Clarissa were all there with big smiles on their faces and invited us to proceed. We had a prayer and then Sister Johnson sang her song. The spirit was very strong and afterwards we ended up having a mini testimony meeting where everyone including Raymond and Clarissa who were both investigators, bore their testimonies! It was awesome. I then got another prompting that we weren't done yet, we needed to stay longer. So I asked if they wanted to sing a hymn with us. They said yes and we got our hymn booksout of the truck. After singing "I know that my redeemer lives" and having a closing prayer by Clarissa we were still prompted to stay put. Then Vanessa said something- she said, we actually wanted to talk to ya'll. We were like ok cool, what's up. Vanessa then told us about how they had been praying about what they can do to improve their situation and make it so that Raymond can get baptized and things have fallen into their laps in a way that Raymond could move out and they could break up and he could get baptized. They asked us a few questions about the situation and then asked if it would be possible. We said we'd have to ask president because honestly they have little kids together and they want to be together it just wouldn't be right to break them up so that Ray could get baptized but not be living with his family. They need to just work on getting their divorces taken care of and then get married to each other and then Ray can get baptized. But I wasn't quite sure what to say to help them with all of this and so I looked at Sister Johnson and she had this crazy look on her face and then it clicked- the talk!!! So I said "ok Sister Johnson has something to say now!" So she gave them the talk and told them to read it and pray about it. We left and got into our truck and offered a prayer of thanks to our father in heaven for helping us to be lead by the spirit. The whole thing was an amazing experience and I learned that I do know what the spirit feels like when I am being prompted and that if I listen right away without hesitating, amazing things can happen!!!

Alright well ya'll thanks for always being there for me! I am learning so much on my mission and continually growing. I am so grateful to beout here serving in the Mighty TSAM!! I miss ya'll tons but the experiences I am having and the lessons I am learning are life changing and I wouldn't give them up for anything!!!

SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler