Elder Bennett Gleave: Week 42--Cake District

Hello,

Sorry if this email doesn't make any sense! I don't feel well so it's really hard to think, but here we go:

So it's the end of the transfer and things are looking good. My district formed an unusally tight bond this transfer, and named ourselves the "cake district". At the beginning of the transfer I was worried about how our district would do, but since we all became so tight, we started to see miracles. Each campanionship individually stepped up their missionary game, and worked even harder, because they saw how hard the others were working and didn't want to get left behind. In the end, the cake district accounted for 70% of our zone's baptisms, and this past week alone, the baptismal font saw six people enter into the fold of Christ. I'm so proud to be a part of the cake district. But what scared me is that transfers were coming up, and I was nervous all of us were going to be split up, that the cake district would be no more. But low and behold, the president thought the cake district, in fact the whole zone was doing so well that he put us on freeze! Which basically means no one gets transfered out. So you know that means--cake district for life.

What's even better, is that two of those baptisms were ours! We've been teaching this big Hawaiian dude's family, and he's been a member his whole life. But when he was 17, he was trying to make a yellow light, and accidently hit a pedestrian. The court then sentenced him to 25 years of prison. And so for the next 11 years, he spent his life in prison, and when he got out, he got involved in things he wasn't suppose to. But he decided he needed to change his life. So he moved away, and started going to church. Every since then, he's been slowly turning his life around and we've been teaching his kids. He has two boys that are 11 and 14, but they don't look like it! One of them is as tall as me! They are great kids. On Sunday, we baptized the kids. I got the opportunity to baptize the youngest. It was the best! As they say in the mission, I finally got my feet wet. I was kinda nervous though, because I didn't know if I would be able to baptize him because of how big he was, but it must of been the spirit or something because I had a sudden burst of strength and I was able to pull him out. I almost fell back into the water though. I definitly stumbled. But it was all good in the hood.

The reason why I like this story is that their dad, the one who went to prison, is a rougher-looking guy. He has tattoos all over his body; he's 6-5 and 200 something pounds, has diamond earrings and would be the last person you would expect in church. Except without fail, he's there. And it doesn't matter what you look like, or what you've done, all that matters is what you are doing now, and he truly represents that!

Another cool thing happened to me and my comp. We got out of sacrament and someone told us that we were teaching the gospel principles class, and on missionary work of all things. We were a little nervous, but how hard was it to teach a class about what we do everyday. When we got in there, we noticed a lady whose husband is an inactive member, and she's a non member, and who the elders have been trying to work with. Well she came to Church all by herself that week. And so we were teaching the lesson, and she was silently crying, and writing down notes, and she even told a story about how she did missionary work. Then after the lesson, she goes up to the ward mission leader and says, "I want to be baptized on April 4th. I've already taken the lessons like 20 times, so I just need a refresher, but let's make this happen." ...wow okay! And so it was a total miracle. But that is just what happens in the cake district.

Anyway, outta time. But just know I love this Church and I know it's true, and that anyone who has any doubt about should just ask the big man up top.

Gleave out.