November 16, 2013  I am either a great procrastinator or time goes by way too fast.  I shall choose the second option!  This past Sunday we had our first adult baptism in the Marshallese Branch in many, many months!!  We have had two young elders assigned to our little branch and they are wonderful.  They are very diligent as well as very in tune with the spirit.  It is so amazing to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ can change lives.  This man, early 30's, has made many bad choices in his life and never had responded to the pleadings of his family who are strong members of the church.  I don't know what exactly brought about his change of heart, but I know his heart has been softened and he was ready to make a commitment.  His 13 year old daughter is in my teenage Sunday School class and she is so happy. The brother that we have been working with on his English conducted the baptism service for the first time.  We were so proud of him.  He is very shy so it took a lot of courage to get up and conduct the meeting.  He will make a great bishop some day, I'm sure.   Next Saturday there will be 7 members of our tiny branch of the church to go to the temple for the first time.  One of the couples has asked us to be there with them to kind of be their escort or guide as they go through the temple.  This is a couple who would not even speak to us a year ago and were not coming to church at all.  They had gotten their feelings hurt and did not want to participate in church.  They now have learned that powerful principle of forgiveness and are now active in the church.  What a joy!!  They have 2 daughters and their families who are setting a goal to all go to the temple next year.  Lives are changed by learning to forgive others. How I wish we could all be perfect sometimes but then of course we would not have opportunities to grow in humility and understanding.  John told you about our new convert friend, Naomi, in his last blog.  Naomi is still going strong and has been baptized and confirmed a member of the church.  She is an incredible cook and loves to have us over and cook for us.  It's kind of a "eat and ask" meal.  We "eat" and she "asks" lots of gospel questions which we are delighted to answer.  I hope we will always remain in contact  with her after we leave Sacramento.  We have a new assignment of about 61 names of less active members from the Sacramento 1st Ward who we have been asked to try to contact and invite to church.  So far are batting average is about zip for folks not at home.  We started a new marriage class last week and had a great turnout.  We had the second class last night and had 4 people there.  We were trying to figure out if it was our breath, our body odor, or our personalities that might have driven them away.  We're thinking positively though and thinking it may of just been "one of those nights."  We look forward to see what will happen next week.  A Marshallese sister has just been called as my "assistant" in Sunday school so we will team teach for a while so that she will be ready to take over in February.  It doesn't seem possible that we will only be here another 3 months!  We are having 4 sister missionaries over for supper next week and celebrating Thanksgiving with them early.  We are blessed!  Take care!!!