Monday, January 17, 2011

I Must Go and Fetch the Water Part II

My battery died just as I was taking pictures of the water brigade, so all we have is this one of Elders Gropp and Crawford. I've written about Samvel, the hearing & speech impaired father of Lena, Kamo and Rima. He was baptized Saturday, but not without some tribulation. There was a crew installing new radiators in the building this week. What we ended up with was no heat and no warm water for the font. So Armine led the elders up to their apartment several times to bring back big buckets of hot water and I went back and forth from the church kitchen with pans of steaming water from the electric stove, and we eventually got the font full enough with tepid water so that Elder Larson and Samvel could kneel down in the font with enough water to immerse Samvel. Standing wouldn't have worked. Not exactly a pioneer story (how I love the pioneers) but in our way it was memorable. They didn't freeze to death, and we were only half an hour late starting. We had about 30 people attending--many investigators. So we hope everyone there felt the Spirit and knew how important this ordinance is. Important enough that no one let a little cold water stop it.
I've written about Navere before, also. He was baptized in August. I can't even find the words to tell how much I love him. I took this picture when he came several hours early for a Primary activity. I feel sure that he wants to be at church because things at home are so, um, so difficult. His brother has succumbed to peer pressure and no longer comes, because he's at the age when boys start proving their manliness by ruining their lungs. But Navere keeps coming, no matter how long the walk and how cold. He smiles more now, he interacts with the others more. I think he's happy there. We're teaching out of Primary Manual #4 this year and that means The Book of Mormon. The class is full of boys, and only three sweet girls, and they each have their own copies, and their own highlighters, and we really get into it. I pray that he'll feel the Spirit often enough and strong enough to weather his adolescent years. The Gospel is really the only thing he has going for him-----there's a long list of things working against him. But I know fervent prayers in his behalf can be the very thing he needs the most.

This is my mattress. Smoothed out the best it can be. We have a wonderful old down comforter, and the lumps in the mattress conform for the most part to my own lumps, so I do get a warm & cozy night's sleep. I hate getting up in the dark to go and fetch the water, but we've had hot water every day now, for as long as I can remember, so I'm grateful.