As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good 'ol way....

Querida Familia,

Tuvimos un bautismo. Estamos muy agradecimos por Oscar y Marisol Buendia. Su mama estuvo contenta cuando los dos fueron bautizado. Tuve la opurtunidad bautizar a Marisol y su amigo, Hermano Olsen, bautizo a oscar. (forgive me, but I can't figure out how to change the library keyboard to spanish, so some accents are missing). Vente cinco personas estuvieron ahi.

It was an amazing experience to have our first baptism. We were surprised when President Jackson showed up to watch our baptism. Luckily, there weren't any complication. Everything went the way it was supposed to. There mother, a recent convert, was especially happy that her family can be united in one church. They are all planning on performing baptisms for the dead in the Oakland Temple in three weeks when the ward takes all twenty-six of its recent converts.

We are also blessed to be able to witness the baptism of Dina and Ashley next week. Both are very excited and have adapted well to the ward. We began teaching Dina two weeks ago. Already she is in Alma 15. I won't be surprised if she has finished the Book of Mormon before her baptism. Her daughter Ashley is eight years old and is more eager to be baptized than her mother. She asked me if she could be baptized this weekend. We told her that it would be best to wait one more week just to make sure that we had taught her everything she needed to know.

It's amazing how the Lord has helped us this transfer. Through prayer we set goals at the beggining of this transfer. We also sought the spirit as we decided how er were going to achieve these goals. As we did the things we promised to do to find these people the Lord put them in our path. In Dina's case, She called US. This rarely happens. We feel so blessed to have been worthy of witnessing these blessings. I realize how little I actually do as a missionary. We simply try to bring the Spirit so that the Lord can go to work. This seems to be the most effective way. Amazingly, it isn't something they teach in the MTC.

I hope all is well at home. Things are wonderful in Redwood City. We're in the sixth week of the transfer so we should find out about transfers next saturday (say a prayer that Elder Tidwell and I are still together).

Love,

Elder Badger

Translation:
We had a baptism. We are very grateful for Oscar and Marisol Buendia. Their mother was very happy when they were baptized. I had the opportunity to baptize Marisol and her friend. Elder Olsen baptized Oscar. There were 25 people there.