Best Saturday EVER!

Yesterday was January 25^th 2014 which also happens to be my incredible Wife's Birthday. We generally go out to dinner at a very nice eatery and spend way to much money enjoying food we don't usually eat during the year. It is a great time where we reconnect and relax and just have fun. However, this Birthday was just a tad more special than all of the others where several things occurred, some foreseen and one very unexpected that just made the entire night perfect.

The first expected joy was we were privileged to attend the Baptism of a wonderful woman that I had a very small hand in teaching. (Small indeed, I had the honor of visiting her with our Elders once and spending a few hours talking to her about my own personal experiences in the Church and the things that led up to my Baptism.) I had the great honor of being one of the Witnesses as our Bishop baptized her and brought her back home. I had known this event was coming for a week or so. It was wonderful but not unexpected.

The Unexpected and joyous surprise happened while we were waiting for the ceremony to begin. I look up and see the Elder who had a major hand in our own conversion walk in. He had been transferred out of our Ward some time ago and given the travel limitations placed on Elders, it was a huge surprise to see him. Since he had spent so much time teaching her, he had received permission to travel outside of his zone to see her finally Baptized.

So after seeing a person we will treasure always and watching an amazing woman finally find her way back home, we then went out to the usual Birthday Dinner. We took one of our sets of Elders with us to an amazing restaurant where we had incredible food while spending time with these two incredible young men. Sad to say, as much as I enjoyed the conversation, watching one Elder try Kimchee for the first time was probably the highlight of my evening. Needless to say it was very very funny, but he was a trooper and actually ate the whole piece so kudos for him.

I talk a lot about the Church and the amazing people in. Heck some of you might get tired of hearing me go on and on about the Elders. Every minute you spend among your fellows, it makes you understand how amazing and kind and loving everyone is. However, it is on nights like last night when you really see it shine through. The look of absolute reverence on the Bishop's face as he performed the ceremony was obvious. The quiet joy of the speakers who talked about the Holy Ghost and Baptism shown through. Even the careful way the pianist played showed caring and love.

When the Woman who was baptized last night started this journey, all of these people were strangers to her. When it was all done and the waters parted, these strangers were now her family. One of the biggest and most amazing families in the world.

I say these things in Jesus' name, Amen.