Elder Cloward: India Bengaluru Mission: E-mail: May 4, 2015

What to do when your investigator informs you three days before his baptism that he's going out of town and may not be back in time:
Step 1- Try not to panic.
Step 2- Calmly find out if there's any way that it will still work out.
Step 3- Swallow your disappointment and realize that his baptism will likely have to be postponed (again).

What to do when your investigator tells you over the phone 2 hours before church starts that he's coming back early for his baptism:
Step 1- Try really hard not to panic.
Step 2- Tell him that we didn't have enough time to plan for a service so it'll still have to be the next week.
Step 3- Pray about it and get an almost overwhelming conformation that the baptism needs to happen today.
Step 4- Immediately call back your investigator and a thousand other people to set up a baptismal service in 4 hours.

What to do when you get to the church and realize that the water to that part of the city has been shut off and there's no water in the font or the rest of the building:
Step 1- PANIC
Step 2- Get one of the other Elders to knock some sense into you and look for any possible solution.
Step 3- Ask the security guard to start the back-up pump for the irrigation water.
Step 4- Hook up a hose to the outdoor faucet in the garden and drag the other end into the church.
Step 5- Proceed to fill the font and retain at least a shred of sanity.

Against all odds the India Bangalore Elders (with help and guidance from the almighty) have prevailed over the devil's tactics and Krishna has finally entered into the covenant of baptism. It took a lot of time to get there, and everything that could have possibly gone wrong came to pass, but he was baptized and the spirit was strong during the service. It's a testimony builder to me that even though I wanted to postpone it for multiple reasons when we put our trust in the Lord He made it work. It was also a testimony that more often than not when we trust the Lord to help us get something done it may not be the way wanted or planned for. This experience has strengthened my resolve to do all I can to do my part, but when things don't work out my rule of thumb from now on is- "when you don't know what you should do just trust in God, He'll see you through."
God is mindful of this work and He'll make sure that things get done, I testify of that. :)

In other news this week my new companion has constantly been trying to get me to slap one of the many cows we pass as we walk down the street. He says it's fun and he does it all the time, but I haven't worked up the courage to try it yet. The fear of being kicked, gored, or of contracting mad cow disease are just a few of the things that keep me from being as adventurous and daring as Elder Dias, but seeing as this peer pressure is coming from someone I'm stuck with 24/7 I'll either need to man up or find a different way to show my courage. Pray for me.

Anyways until next week everyone- trust in God, stay away from cows, and rock on. :)

-Elder Clouds

BAPTISM PHOTOS: