Transfers, Parking, and a Baptism

We haven't had any real adventures since the Chinese Branch Halloween party for which we are grateful, and yet, it's been a busy week.

This week was mission transfers. Several of our missionaries were transferred to various areas within the mission. I don't remember where they all went, but they are all safe. No problems with our missionaries, but there were some immigration issues with other missionaries. I'm not quite sure what happened this time, but I think they've been resolved.

It was a late night last night. E's C, B, S, and W returned from Singapore from a new missionary training. Elder W is a brand new missionary, fresh from the MTC. Elder S is excited to be his trainer. Elder S has only been out about two months, but he's a fantastic missionary!

I had to pick them up last night from the airport at 9:45 P.M., at least, that was the original schedule. Their flight had to be rerouted due to rain. Then that flight was delayed by rain. They weren't that much later, but it took awhile to get all their luggage, load the car, and get them home to their respective apartments. I was home about midnight. Now that's what I call burning the midnight oil.

This evening we're picking the ZLs up from the airport from their trip to Singapore. They've been to a monthly training. We're supposed to take them directly to a couple of baptism interviews, but after talking with DL last night, they may go on exchanges instead. I guess we'll find out when we pick them up.

Well, due to a torrential rainstorm this afternoon, the ZLs flight was delayed about an hour. I did get them picked up. Elder J had changed his clothes so he could do the interviews. I drove them out to the interview. Elder J went with Elder B, while I took Elders S and C back to the ZLs' place so Elder S could change clothes and go out to visit with Elder C. Did you follow that? It's gets a little confusing for me, too.

Back to the rainstorm. Saying it was torrential is a bit of an understatement! I have never seen so much water at one time. We have a cement trench around the house for water to drain. The trench is about a foot deep and eight inches across. The water flows out to the larger drainage ditches in front of the house. Today the trench was filled to overflowing. Sister Bodell was worried that the water might flood the house. We did find that the trench was dammed up drainage end with debris. We were out there with umbrella in one hand and a small shovel in the other trying to get rid of the dam. We were able to bust through most of it which allowed the water to drain faster. The street drainage ditches were almost full of water. There was a lot of water that came down this afternoon. A rain like that at home would be most devastating! After the deluge, the water drained pretty quickly from both the trench around the house and the larger ditches in front.

This is a parking stub. There are no meters to put coins in. We buy a packet of these cards and fill out one each time we park in the downtown parking stalls. We have to rub off the year (tahun), month (bulan), day (hari), hour (jam), and minute (minit) that you park, and put it on the dash sow when the "meter maid" comes along you don't get a ticket. We can purchase a pack of half-hour or hour cards. You can see that the information is also printed in Chinese. We keep a couple of books of both the half-hour and hour cards in the car.















Tomorrow, Saturday, will be another baptism session. I will wait to post this blog until then.

Okay, this week has been crazy, but I can now finish up this post before I start the next one! I think I'm getting behind.

Anyway, here is a picture of those who were baptized on Saturday. It was a very nice service. The Spirit there was wonderful.

The two little guys are amazing! They are so happy! I am glad we got to know them. They have strong testimonies!

I am grateful for my testimony. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. It is, indeed His Church. The Book of Mormon is true. If you haven't read, you need to. If you have read it, you need to read it again.