Elder Thomas Farr: Surprise Baptism!

It's been a crazy week mes amis!

So this week we had a surprise baptism! One of our friends, Victoria, had her baptismal interview on Thursday and we got to talk to her after. Then she asked if we could move her baptism to Sunday the 24, a week earlier than what we had planned. So we called our mission president and our branch president so we could get approval from the area seventy to hold the baptism (part of the new covid guidelines is that all baptisms have to be approved by the area seventy). By some miracle, we got it all approved in less than an hour and we were set to have a baptism!

Part of our last-minute preparation was putting together the program. And because of the limited amount of people we can have in the room for a baptism I was asked to give a, fairly last minute, talk about the Holy Ghost which I excitedly accepted. Then on Sunday, we were driving to church when we got a text from our Branch President asking if we could sing a musical number for sacrament meeting. Unfortunately as missionaries we aren't allowed to sing in meetings for covid reasons. So we had to tell him that we couldn't. So instead, he asked me to give a talk!

So on Sunday, I pulled together two (somewhat impromptu) talks and, in my opinion, I think they both turned out pretty well! I love to teach and I love to share the gospel so it was a lot of fun getting to share so much.

The spirit was stronger in that baptism than most anywhere else. At the end, Victoria shared her testimony and it was so powerful. We're all so proud and excited for her.

Last night, I got a call from President Beck letting me know two things:

1. That, unfortunately, the Ivorian embassy has closed due to covid and I may not be able to have my visa approved by March 10. So it seems I'll be in New England a little bit longer than expected.

2. That this Thursday I'll be moving to a new area in Sanford, Maine. This one came as a shock considering I've only been in the mission field for 3 weeks. So I'll be getting a third trainer here in the states. I'm excited to meet him!

Today, for Elder Mansell's last pday, we visited the little sliver of NY in our area and explored the ruins of some awesome forts from the French-Indian War! I'll include some cool pictures :)

Elder Mansell gave his "golden truth" to the mission yesterday which is basically a summary of what he's learned on the mission. He said that he neglects to use the words "my mission" because it's really "the Lord's mission". We aren't here serving for ourselves, we are here entirely on the Lord's errand and we are committed to serving him and helping to fulfill His mission.

It's been a good week, a lot of change is coming up and I can't wait to tell y'all all about it!

Bonne semaine mes amis!