Baptismal Dates!

Hey,

Sorry this email is late; we spent the majority of the morning going to Boys Town on a tour which was fun.  They have a small museum dedicated to Father Flannagan who started Boys Town and we had the opportunity to visit a small shrine inside the chapel where his casket is located.  Some of the highlights were that they had a sculpture of the Tem Commandments that I got a picture of.  Catholicism changed the commandments to fit their teachings so there's no 'thou shalt not worship graven images' (aka saints) and instead they split one so number nine is 'thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife' and ten is 'thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s possessions'.  Sometimes you'll also see it where they change 'thou shalt keep the sabbath day holy' to something like 'thou shalt keep the days of festival holy' so members remember to honor the saint for each day of the year.  Also they have the world’s largest ball of stamps, woohoo, good stuff.

So Elder Samuel and I were part of another parade.  We got a call saying we were wanted at the Trail Center to contact Hispanics for the Florence day parade (Florence being the city that the center is in).  Well this parade is in North Omaha so when we show up it's just black and white as far as the eye can see (Hispanics are found in south/eastern Omaha).  So we spend a couple hours walking the street trying to find Hispanics and only find four families.  It wasn't too big of a deal since we found them, but we had to spend at least an hour and a half waiting for the parade to pass before we could contact again and by that point the majority of the afternoon was used up. (Oh, fun fact: I'm serving in Douglas County right now).

Last p-day we spent some time window shopping.  South 24 St is essentially downtown Mexico so we just walked down the street browsing.  There is a shop that sells imported snake skin, alligator skin, and leather boots.  They have one ridiculous style where the toe of the boot becomes a pointy piece of leather that swoops up vertically for a good foot.

  

We also got two baptismal dates set that day as well.  Our investigators M and F (the ones who had been taught some 10 years ago but F had forbidden baptism) committed for June 9th.  The only problem that we have is that M works on Sundays so our plan is to build her faith that God provides us the means that we may follow his commandments and try and help her find a solution. 

Elder Samuel and I have been running pretty regularly for an hour in the mornings.  Usually we'll simply run from our apartment somewhere, but we've also spent time trying to find nice areas and trails.  One morning we drove the car north to the pedestrian bridge that spans the Missouri connecting Omaha and Council Bluffs; it's a beautiful area.  The whole area is newly landscaped and scattered with signs, gardens, sculptures, etc.  The only downside is that the local track is locked in the mornings to prevent vandalism so we can't go there, but o well, at least we're running.

That’s it for this week, see you in seven.

Elder Harker