Sister Emily Steele: Be Baptized NOW . . . THEN Study

Last Sunday we had an English student show up to church for the first time. It was fast and testimony meeting, and there seemed to be a central theme of prayer. I looked over at one point and she was crying. She told me she wanted to have a good experience like everyone else had had with prayer. I told her she definitely could. And then I talked to her about baptism. She said it was something that she wanted, but that she needed time to study first...but then she thought for a second and then said, "Or should I get baptized first and then study?" Yes, that one. I told her we would teach her everything she needed to know, and then she could be baptized the following Sunday. We would help her to continue to study and learn after she was baptized too. Baptism is just the beginning.

We met with her on Tuesday and Saturday, and taught her EVERYTHING. She definitely had doubts, questions, fears, etc. about changing her religion, which was all she knew for her 40+ years of life. But she knew baptism was important, and she was willing to do it. The experience I had on Sunday at the baptismal program was different than any of the others I've had so far on my mission. Usually we join the members and get to see the person go down into the water, and come back up. This time we were helping this sweet lady prepare to go into the font from the bathroom. I know it was just any ordinary bathroom, but the Spirit was there. Being behind the scenes, we got to see her right before she was baptized, and right after she came out of the font back into the bathroom, dripping wet, a little cold, but SO happy. The woman that we sent into the baptismal font was a different person than the woman who came out of it. By our own standards, we may have thought she wasn't "converted" enough to be baptized, or that she needed a little more time. But when I saw her come out of the water, something had changed in her. I know that baptism is a new birth, and that these people are becoming new creatures in Christ.

Sister Emily Steele: The Blessings of Tithing Overpower Poverty

This Week in the Thailand Bangkok Mission

We met with one of our recent converts and she had collected a bunch of her old clothes and was getting ready to go to the market and sell them for 10 baht a piece. We helped her take her huge bag of clothes to the market, and asked her what made her decide she wanted to do this. She said that she knows how important paying tithing is, and that she will receive blessings if she pays 10 percent to the Lord. She doesn't have a job, so she doesn't have any income. So basically, she went out and sold her clothes to earn money IN ORDER TO pay her tithing. She only made 90 baht that day, but I'll never forget how happy she was, just to give 9 baht to the Lord. And she knew that she could declare she was a full tithe payer in her tithing settlement interview the next Sunday with the branch president. Whenever my faith is tested, I can look around me and see the strength of these faithful members, and how much they are willing to sacrifice to follow Christ. They truly do LIVE the gospel.