Sister Toomey Biking Down the Bayou: Baptism on Christmas!

Mom's Note: She sent this on 26 Dec 2016.

Hello! I hope that y'all had a Blessed Christmas! A few weeks ago, I prayed to God and asked for a baptism for Christmas, and then I totally forgot about it. But like always, I try to commit everyone possible to baptism. So, about a dozen days ago, Sister Hyer and I were talking to our mission president, and we were discussing L, and long story short, we knew that we should have her baptized sooner rather than later, so we offered to her mom to have her baptized on Christmas Eve, and then finish off the baptism by "fire" (receiving the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead as a constant companion) on Sunday, Christmas day. She accepted after discussing it with her husband, who works out of town, and BANG it happened. It was a beautiful baptism, and we had about 50 people attend! That is almost double the size of our branch! Some of the other missionaries in our district even brought investigators, and it was all rainbows and butterflies! But, my favorite part, was just feeling the Spirit (or Holy Ghost) so strongly because I live for those moments! I think that some hearts will be changed after watching the baptism.

After the baptism on Christmas Eve, we went out tracting, and the first 4 houses that we went to would not deny our Christmas message with the #LIGHTtheWORLD. It was so cool and a tender mercy! Down the street, these young teenage girls yelled from their carport (wall-less garage) for us to come over to them, and of course we did and they wanted to go to church tomorrow with us. But, they wanted to be picked up by our church bus; and the problem is that we don't have a church bus like many of the baptist churches down here. So, we told them that we would see them on Tuesday.

After L's confirmation, we ate, and of course I, of all people, got food poisoning. So I spent the majority of my Christmas at our apartment. We had other people who we had promised to go see and had to postpone our visit. I prayed a lot to just be able to drive the car to the members house, so at least my companion could Skype her family. And I really wanted to Skype my family, so later that night, we went to Skype my family, and as soon as I Skyped my family, I felt better for the rest of the evening. It's crazy how it all worked out.

I hope y'all had a Merry and Christmas and I hope that y'all have a Happy New year!!! Love you!

Sister Toomey