Ho ho ho!

So first of all, pictures! I'm not sure what's going on in these pictures, but I felt like sending them. I believe it's just me and Elder Loureiro. I stole them from his camera.

So it was a good week! Mikaeli was baptized this week. I don't know if I explained a little bit about her last week, but she was definitely prepared for us. She has a child but the father is in prison, and she had a rough life. But she realized that she needed to change her life and we talked about baptism. She wanted to be baptized, but she was afraid of not being able to live a perfect life after baptism. But luckily, Elder McCardell was interviewing her and he really helped her out. The baptism we had for her was the most spiritual baptism I've had so far.

There wasn't a whole lot of people, but the members that were there were helping so much! We opened up with a hymn and I gave a message. I felt like I should use chapter 6 of Moroni where it talks about after being baptized and molded (I think that's the right translation) and perfected by the Holy Spirit, they were organized into the Church of Christ. Anyway, it was perfect for Mikaeli. Then she was baptized and we sang a hymn. The bishop talked to her while I was waiting for Elder Loureiro so we could sing a special musical number and he did a great job. After that, Elder Loureiro and I sang Nearer my God to thee. We practiced really quick right before entering the room to sing it, and let me tell you, we were rusty so it was down right terrible. Anyway, the Spirit decided that we weren't allowed to ruin the baptism so the hymn actually turned out really well. Mikaeli really liked it! I could definitely feel the spirit throughout the entire baptism.

Oh yeah, I made a cake. It was delicous.

End of story. Until next week!

Love,
Elder Rackham

Whoa, this week went by fast!

Hello hello!

Before I knew it, this week had blown by! I blinked and it was Friday!

It's really interesting how well the Lord orchestrates our lives. I spent time thinking about how the two weeks I went into the MTC early has really effected my mission in an extremely positive way. If I hadn't gone early, I never would have had Elder Harmon as my trainer, who was a great trainer, and that's just the beginning. It really changed my mission for the better. I can't even fathom how it all came together like this, but I know it was an accidente!

I wish I could talk more, but I was working on making a priesthood line of authority for a member that I ordained to the Melchizadek Priesthood and that took a little longer than I thought.

Until next week!

Love you all!

Elder Rackham

So this is another quick week!

One of our investigators was baptized this saturday and it was so great! She's been investigating the church for the longest time. And she was almost baptized one time before. But this time, she finally received an answer and she had the strongest desire to be baptized! It was so great seeing the desire culminate into this baptism. She's so happy, her family which is mostly members is happy to see her make this decision. It was so cool too, because her borther-in-law baptized her. I prefer when members or family baptize the person, because they have a support system already!

I would love to talk more about the wonderful things we've seen this week, but I should explain the pictures:

There's three or 4 of me eating a bomba which is a fried ball of bread with ham and cheese in the middle and it's delicious. I'm also drinking coke which is even more delicious! Then there's my amazing brazilian companion Elder Loureiro! After that I believe is my super hero picture. I made pancakes for breakfast one morning and I took two or three bites, and to me it seemed exactly like the top part of Spiderman's mask! So I had some fun playing with my food! Don't worry, I am perfectly aware how weird I am, and I enjoy it 100%!

I hope this week was great for everyone!

I love you all!
Elder Rackham

This was a good week!

Hey ya'all!

This was a good week this week! Unfortunately I was sick, but we decided that we need to work and that we couldn't afford to lose a day staying at home, so we went and worked! I'll be honest it was really difficult, but we were blessed with a baptism this saturday! This will be our first baptism together, Elder Loureiro and I! And we are working with two really good families that really want to change their lives and improve their family life as well!

I'm doing better now, it was a cold I think, but I'm feeling better now. We had to walk so much, because we were working with a investigator that lives really far away.

Anyway, I'll tell more about the baptism next week!

Thanks for the support! I love you all!

Elder Rackham