Week 22--Canje, Guyana

Elder Fisher--week 3

Hello Family,

Hey, I got to see you a few days ago. I'm glad Colorado has changed from brown to white since then. I really loved talking to you. Payton, you've got to do something about your accent. Your voice was meant for much better things than that. Like serenading the ladies...Grace, it was good to see you too. Keep smiling that big. Cooper, you're a cutie. Daddy, I think Canje is pronounced that way, but you are the the only one who knows it.  Everyone else here is confused. Mommy, I love you. I liked It's a Wonderful Life by the way. The quote at the top is from it. I'm sending you the spiritual experience that I wrote to President Egbert. It's about the family taht got baptized on Saturday.

My spiritual experience this week was the oppurtunity to go to the baptism of a family that is very dear to me. When I was with Elder Bigler, we contacted a lot because our appointments kept falling through. One night we were just walking around Bath near our apartment, and we came to a crossroads. We stopped, and Elder Bigler turned to me and said, "All right Elder Hanni, we aren't going anywhere until you tell me where we are going." He wanted me to choose which way we would go to try and find someone. I hesitated for a minute. I looked left, right, and forward, but nothing really felt right.  Elder Bigler was waiting for me to make a decision. All of a sudden, a voice called out to us from the house behind us and to the right.  It said, "Hey are you lost?" Elder Bigler and I turned toward the house where the voice came from, and said, "No, we were just coming to talk to you." When we got closer to the dark house, we saw a man sitting on his stairs. His wife and two of his sons were next to him. Elder Bigler and I contacted them that night, and we began teaching them soon after.  Initially, the lessons were okay.  They weren't the best, though.  The wife, Pam, didn't really want to listen, and it seemed like the man, Terry, had a lot of things going on and he didn't really want to make changes yet. The son, Rajesh, was really cool though, and he remembered everything that we taught. We weren't sure how far the family would go. That all changed, however, when Brother Terry and Rajesh came to church one Sunday. Brother Terry changed after that. He loved the church, and he became excited to learn from us each time. His wife didn't want to participate still.  Then he brought his whole family to church. Sister Pam loved it, and they began having family prayers every night. Before I left Bath, Brother Terry, Sister Pam and Rejesh all had a baptismal dates for December 23rd. On Saturday, I got to go to it.  The family was so happy, and it was so good to see them enter the waters of baptism. It is incredible the change that has taken place for them.  Seeing them make covenants with God has made this the best Christmas of my life.

I'm so glad that the family in Fort Carson branch got baptized. I'm going to send you pictures of Brother Terry, Sister Pam, and Rajesh next week.  My camera just died, so it won't let me put any pictures on here. Sorry about that.

I love all of you. I hope the Star Wars movie was good and that you have a wonderful Christmas break.

Love,

Elder Hanni