Happy Valentine’s Day?

I feel like we weren't even deserving of all the miracles we were blessed with this week, but I'm also extremely grateful.

The most exciting news is that (name) was finally baptized! He dropped into week A on Monday and was baptized and confirmed this weekend. He's such a nice person, but I think his big obstacle was that he was afraid to commit to something when he didn't know beforehand that it was 100% right. But he took a heroic leap of faith and entered the waters of baptism. I know that the Lord upheld him and blessed him with His Spirit. Actually, he was having doubts Friday night, but after we followed up on the phone he had a powerful and distinct prompting of the Spirit that he needed to be baptized. On Saturday we were continually calling him and he wouldn't give us a direct answer about whether he was or was not coming to his own baptismal service. We met with him to boost his feelings of the Spirit, but it came right down to the wire--he told us if he was coming he would show up at 6:30. And he drove up at 6:40. This was a huge blessing, and I thank our Heavenly Father for guiding (name) to make this great decision.

We also have a great investigator named (name) who will be baptized this Saturday. The only concerns he's ever brought up about baptism are that we have to make sure the water is warm or he'll catch a cold. :) I love that man, and I'm excited to see him baptized as well. He always amazes me with his understanding of gospel truths and his sensitivity to the Spirit. When Qiu Rong was confirmed, Qing-Yu told me afterward that he felt the Spirit really strongly and he recognized it immediately as such. That man's so well prepared for baptism.

Finally, (name), the father of a recent convert, is making great progress as well. He came to church again, so he's in week B. After church we taught him the word of wisdom and he immediately promised never to drink tea again. Then we asked him if he believes this is all true, and he said he doesn't doubt it because we all believe it, but he also believes his Daoist gods have answered his prayers before. We taught him the 10 commandments and asked him if he was disobeying any of those commandments. He thought for a moment, then read aloud again the part about not bowing down to idols. He said, "This is a commandment, too..." We bore testimony that his Heavenly Father is the one and only God and if he would stop worshipping other gods he would feel more strongly the love and revelation God wants to give him. He committed, and he had a big smile on his face. This man is one of the most humble people I've met so far, and I look forward to his baptism as well.

And here's some news--today's the start of a new move call. I'm still with Elder Turk in Tainan, but this move call I'll be the district leader. A little nerve-wracking, but to be honest it'll be less stressful than other district leaders, because I just have us, the sisters, and the zone leaders. I basically just take numbers every night, lead district training meeting every week, and do baptismal interviews. That last one is the one I'm actually nervous about. I have to decide whether or not somebody's worthy and prepared to be baptized. But I'm humbled by this opportunity to serve, and I'll do the very best I can.

This last week was power week, so we left the door early, ate lunch and dinner as quickly as possible, and worked our hardest to find and teach lots of people. It was very refreshing, especially after Chinese New Year, when a lot of people were unwilling to meet with us.

Well, not much else happened this week. Well, I mean, a lot happened, but I'm running out of time and there's nothing that really sticks out that I need to tell you about. And by that I mean I kinda forgot. Sorry. :/

Love you all so much!

Carter