Alex's Baptism

1. This is me at the top of the tower of Pembroke Castle. Look it up online or something. It really was quite awesome. 

2. A member of the ward had this cake made for us. Its pretty cool, if you couldn't tell. 

3. so the other day I was riding my bike and I heard a metal snapping noise. When I stopped, my back wheel had gone all super loose, like was shaking around. So I unscrewed it and found that the two pieces of the axle (that's when you think "isn't the axle only supposed to be one piece") pulled out easily from either side. Apparently it decided to snap in half. Bummer. Its sort of fixed now, but still needs some more work...maintaining a bike that you ride all day every day can be costly. 

4. On Halloween we had to be in at 6 for our own safety. So I figured out how to do missionary work from our flat: bake cookies for people! There were quite tasty. 

5. This is Alex. I baptized him. 

6. This is Alex and Mammy and Rhiannon and Elder Thurgood and I. 

7. This is a really attractive picture of me on a train. 

8. And a pretty awesome picture of me on a castle. 

So a few months ago I met this awesome kid named Alex Watkins and he introduced me to his mom and sister. Now Alex is a member of the church. Hopefully the rest of his family will be soon as well. This has been a bit of an odd weekend because I have been really sick and had to rest a lot (which if you know me at all you know that drives me absolutely crazy) but we had the great joys of seeing Alex baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a twelve year old kid he was able to pray and gain a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and this is His church once again restored to the earth. He was also able to pray and receive the revelation from God that he should keep the Sabbath day Holy instead of playing rugby on Sunday. On Saturday night at his baptism one of his friends (there was a row of about six of them there) asked him about the rugby game the next day and he told him without pause for thought that he wouldn't be there because he would be at church. Most kids that have been coming to church their whole lives struggle with this, but due to his great spiritual sensitivity, he was able to find his answer. 

Alex was confirmed a member of the church by our ward mission leader, Brother Phillips. His blessing stated that he would receive the priesthood and serve a mission. It was an amazing and powerful experience. I nearly shed tears. Hopefully Alex's mum Fran will be baptized by the end of this month. His sister still claims to be atheist, even though we have seen her feel the spirit about five times now. We just really really want them to be all together in the church as a family, so that they can all strengthen and uplift one another, instead of Alex having to stand on his own in a sense. My other baptisms so far have seemed to be closed off by a sense of finality and completion afterward. I don't think it will come until we have seen the whole family enter the waters of baptism. 

God is so good, he works mighty miracles every day. Just look for them, and you will see them. Most frequently they will come when you follow the promptings of the Spirit. So do it. Have a wonderful week and I love you all.

Love, 

Elder Seth Poulsen