Elder Jesse Cole Dowdle: Tatum's baptism and some great contacting

Hey guys -

Best week in the area thus far. Tatum was baptized this Saturday and it was such a spiritual service! Because she's Tunney's cousin, he got to come and give the talk on baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and it was such an awesome experience to witness; he called it the "highlight of [his] mission". We've been so grateful to have been able to teach such an intelligent and intuitive young women as she's really desired to know what's true. Her entire age class was there at the baptism and I'm so happy the ward was so supportive - this is the perfect place to finish a mission.

Although Tatum's baptism was the highlight, the rest of the week has been really fruitful. Through talking to everyone we see, we've found several part-member families that haven't been on the ward records. One of them was excited to see us; he mentioned how he just ran into his old Stake President at a gas station and how seeing us was a sign that he needed to start coming back. His nonmember wife was excited to meet with us and they set up an appointment for dinner this Wednesday. Things are happening here and we're way happy about it; the ward hasn't seen this amount of work for a couple of months. We're grateful that we have such a great ward to bring these people to, as well; we don't have to worry about the ward being on it's best behavior when we bring these people to church.

We invited a young man who was contacted by missionaries to Tatum's baptism and to our surprise, he accepted. After the baptism we were able to take him on a church tour, teach him a lesson, and set him for baptism for the first week in June! He was prepared and it was an amazing experience. However, he's 19 and so we set up a lesson yesterday with the YSA sisters to pass him off and that went super well - he's all passed off and still excited for baptism. Amazing week - next week has the potential to be just as good.

I love you so much!

Jesse