When is Summer over again!?!?

This past weekend I was suppose to have three baptisms, and three confirmations; Ben, Sam, and Pamela. Sam decided to take a trip back to Cali to tell his dad face to face he was joining the church. He was suppose to be back Friday morning for his baptismal interview...but he never showed. We called and called, nothing. His fellowshippers, the Pututau's, had not heard from him either. DAYS go by, and I'm thinking, "Great, Sam's dad killed him and now he's buried in some open field." Or, "He's locked up in a basement and his crazy dad won't let him out!" Finally we get word this week that Sam is fine, has NOT told his dad about him joining the church, and will be back this week for the start of school. He's driving me nuts! Well, at least he's alive, so we should be able to have his baptism in the next week or two.

Ben's baptism was amazing. If anyone was ready for the Gospel, is was Ben! He's the one holding the little girl, his daughter Penelope. His twin brother Nick is next to him, he baptized Ben. I confirmed Ben a member of the church the next day at church, that was a great experience I'll never forget. He called me later in the day to thank me and say that he picked the right person to confirm him. He loved the blessing and said it made him cry. Gosh I love this guy, I know I'll see him at the temple in a year when he gets married, he's a stud and will have no problem finding a wife AND preparing for the temple, he wants it more than anything!

Pamela's baptism was equally as memorable as Ben's. She's also ready to live the Gospel. Loves it, has met many of the women at church, and already has a group of friends. She's only 21, it blows my mind that she's my age! As you can tell from the picture, I was the one that baptized her. My first times this weekend both baptizing and confirming....you better believe my journal entries that night were LONG!

This weekend we have a baptism for a woman named Shelly. She wants to be baptized so badly. Her family is not receptive to us, so I'm afraid they'll drag her down and she'll become in-active. She loves to meet with us though and loves the church, and is meeting people at church, so hopefully that won't happen! We then have another baptism for the 4th of September, Daisy, so I'm pretty pumped for the next couple of weekends. We already have new investigators that look promising, my favorite so far is a black Muslim man name Raouf. Our first time meeting him he straight up asked, "How can I find out for myself that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God?" .........duhhhh WHAT!?! We're planning on taking him to see the Joseph Smith movie this week, man I love being in Salt Lake. The weather is still hot, walking doesn't get easier. We did have a crazy weather storm this past week. The pictures of Elder Burkard and I with the pink Victoria Secret umbrella come with a funny story. We were walking and it just started POURING down! We were at a members apartment talking and had to get going to a lesson. We didn't have an umbrella, the day started off fairly nice. She offered us her umbrella and we accepted, little did we know it would be this pink sexy looking thing! I said, "Ya know what, I'm from Washington, I LOVE the rain, this isn't too bad." As I finished that sentence thunder cracked the skies and it came down even harder. So to my reluctance I gave in. We walked all day under that thing, which I'm sure brought many smiles to people passing by, we received many honks and waves that day!

Everything else is going great! It's crazy thinking school is starting back up. I'm excited to hear how the Washington/BYU game turns out. I'm not sure who I'll be cheering for? Football season will be tough to have to miss, but I think I can focus on the work. Come the Utah and BYU game though, I don't think I'll be able to escape it, I think I'll even cheer for the Utes. GASP! I know I know, shame on me, but I'm surrounded by Utes everyday, I don't want to be ran out of town!

Best regards and much love,
Elder Scotty