Elder Cloward: India Bengaluru Mission: E-mail: Dec. 22, 2014 "I wonder if frying it would make it taste better..."

"If they don't get baptized by the end of the month, I'll eat my tie."

Those were my words at our zone training when they asked us to write down the names of our investigators who had a baptism date. What usually happens is each companionship will write down five or six names of people that they think will be baptized, but unfortunately usually only one or two actually do. Our zone leaders want us to be more realistic and so after I wrote down our two names they asked me how sure I was that they would actually be baptized this month, to which I gave my confident, (but not well thought out) response.

To make a long story short, the other Elders are literally making me eat those words, and Elder Cloward will probably be suffering from some tie-induced indigestion next month.

The day before the baptism for one of these women we had her interview and found out she would have to meet with the mission president to resolve something first. She should still be able to be baptized in January but until then I'm hoping the other missionaries forget my rash agreement. Prayers in that regard would be appreciated...

The other women who we had a date set for did get baptized though, and I had the honor of performing the ordinance. I had to prepare her and myself and I had to make sure the baptism service was organized and nice and so most of that Sunday day I was pretty stressed. However, when the service started and the speakers shared their feelings about baptism my anxiety left and was replaced by the Spirit. The ordinance went perfectly (I only had to dunk her once) and it was an experience that I'm sure this family, nor myself, will ever forget. :)

Oh, and I finally have more pictures. :)