Kathleen

Once again, have a limited time to email :( so I will just have to update you on Kathleen. Oh wait first, things with Brother Nardz are all worked out. And of course, I shouldn't have ever doubted because although these trials seemed like the end of the world, they were exactly what needed to happen. We were able to meet with Nardz this week without Ruth there which was a first. But instead we had Brother Leonel with us and it was a really great lesson about Repentance. We re-extended a baptismal date for March 15 and he accepted with a lot of excitement. His whole attitude to these lessons has seemed to change. It almost seems like he needed to have that mess up with the word of wisdom to realize how much he appreciates having the gospel in his life. So we can thank God even for our trials :)

    So Kathleen was baptized on Saturday!!!! It was such a beautiful baptism. It was combined with brother Mark Acosta, investigator nina Sister Gaddy and Sister Lacdo-o. It was just beautiful haha. That's all I can really say to describe it. The most amazing part was after her baptism when Kathleen bore her testimony. She shared about her favorite story in the Book of Mormon in Jacob chapter 5. Yes, the allegory of the Olive Tree. Who claims that to be their favorite story in the Book of Mormon after reading it once? Haha I know it took me multiple times reading it before I understood. Pero she shared how she felt at that moment, like one of the branches that was being grafted into the tree. She said at first, coming to church, reading the book of mormon, meeting with the missionaries all felt a little strange. But as she started to really grow into the tree, and become a part of this church, she feels like this is exactly where she belongs now. The amount of joy I felt is indescribable. But all I can say is that I know that this gospel is true. I know that it blesses lives.

    Each day I see people receive the blessings that come from turning toward our brother Jesus Christ and follow in His footsteps on the path to eternal happiness. I also see those who are sad and unsatisfied with their lives because of their lack of faith or ability to trust in the plan that Heavenly Father has for us. My hope is that I can continue to do all that I can to improve the lives of those around me with the message of this gospel. Okay that's all Ihave time for this week :( I love you all! Ingat kayong lahat. Make sure that you, ya know, choose the right because we all know we will be happier in the end. Until next week! Mahal ko kayong lahat.

Love, 

Sister Sawada

This first picture if of Mark and the Sisters and some other people haha. The person who baptized Mark is brother Jospeh. He is an RM who was actually a less active but since the Elders have come into the ward they have really befriended him and he helped to fellowship Mark. So it was the perfect opportunity to invite him to exercise his priesthood power :) also the man to the left of Mark is his father who is a less active. We hoped he would be able to baptize Mark but he said he did not feel like he would feel prepared in time. So the other people are the Elders, Brother Miranda our bishopric first counselor, and Elder Alejandro. I don't know why he's in there haha.

This is all of the missionaries and Kathleen! Kathleen has been attending church activities and stuff for so long that she has met so many of the missionaries and they love her so much so they all came and supported her on her baptism day! It was really nice of them.