Week 3

Hello mom and dad, as well as anyone this email is being forwarded to! This week the major event was, of course, the baptism. It is really nice to have an experience like that so early on in my mission. The person who sent the pictures was J., who was the one who introduced Sister R. to the church. He flew all the way out from Utah to baptize her, which was really nice of him! I'll also tell you a bit more about Sister R. She and J. met while they were doing military service. Right now, she is working as a cop! (She even came to sacrament meeting one time in full uniform! She works really late, that's why.) She also does MMA, apparently! She first met the missionaries at the beginning of January, and she had a lot of great questions. She really connected with the message of the Restoration and quickly developed a strong testimony and a very passionate desire to get baptized. She really feels Heavenly Father's love for her! Right now, she really wants to go to the temple- she wants to fly out to Utah and see the one in Salt Lake city.

Preparing for the baptism was also quite an experience. We had it in our building, and the last time there was a baptism there- which was quite a while ago- the water was green, most likely because the pipes are old. We wanted the water to be clean for Sister R, so we went the night before to see if we could get all the copper out of it, which is what we assumed it was. We filled th.e font up halfway, then drained it. It seemed like it was taking a while to drain, so we decided to come back the next morning to see how it was. So we get there, and there was still a bit of water in the font. Turns out, the pump stopped working, and the hole that had it was flooded! We had to take all the water out of there by hand for three hours! Then, about an hour before the event started we tried filling it up again... and the water hit a sediment patch that turned it brown! It looked like a tub of apple cider. It was also quite cold. Thankfully both Sister R. and J. were okay with it.

Hope this story made sense.

We did not have exchanges last week, but we will have them this week. Later today, actually! I will be going to Uniontown, which had a tornado hit it last week! So it looks like I need to be ready for service. We will be meeting up at the Monongahela church today.

One more story from this week. This one's about teaching in ways that people can understand. On Thursday we met with an investigator named O., who likes to visit many different types of churches, but he really likes it when we come. We went over the Plan of Salvation with him, and he had a hard time understanding the three degrees of glory. So Elder Groesbeck told him to imagine the best thing possible right now. He then said that he would compare the Celestial kingdom to a Baconator, the Terrestrial kingdom to a Son of Baconator, and the Telestial kingdom to a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger- all three of them are satisfying, but you always want to aim for the top. That's when Oscar understood it. We got back in the car, and neither of us could believe he actually made that comparison.

So now I'll answer my mom's questions. The package came on Wednesday, so it looks like I'm waiting two days for packages to be delivered. I have been warm enough so far- Pennsylvania has Virginia's all-four-seasons-in-a-week syndrome. It has snowed quite a bit, but it has never been too cold for my heavy coat to handle yet. Amy and Brother Calderwood have both emailed me, and I of course get Grandma's weekly emails. Michael also emails me once a week. I read the emails when I get them- not sure if I'm supposed to though. On P-days, we generally go shopping at a store called Aldi- it's really cheap, and it's the store that is closest to us. Last P-day, we went out to Red Robin with one of Elder Groesbeck's old companions, then we went to Mount Washington and got a nice view of Pittsburgh- I'll attach the ones I took- and then we went into Pittsburgh for a bit! It was fun. Today though we're probably just going to meet up with the rest of the district at the church. Speaking of the district, we're the only ones in McKeesport. Some areas, like Mononagahela, I believe, have both a pair of Elders and a pair of Sisters.

Well, it's good to see you guys are doing well back home. Excited to hear that Ryan got accepted at BYUI! Any word on colleges yet from the others? Are Ben's mission papers coming along? Glad to hear that Jessica was able to make it home. Right now I'm studying in Preach My Gospel about effective study and recognizing the Spirit, and I'm getting comfortable teaching the Plan of Salvation. Well, that should be everything. Hope you guys take care!

Elder Frederickson