Earl Got Baptized!!!

Hey familia!

Well this week was pretty great :) Some highlights were:

1. zone conference in Little Rock. Got to see all the missionaries from this side of the mission again! 

2. we had 9 appointments set for one day (highest either of us have had in our missions)

3. set another baptismal date for Michelle who is super awesome but is going into surgery this week :(

4. set a date with Henry and Jasmine to be married (never knew I would be a wedding planner while out on my mission)

5. had a bbq with some delicious food (especially bro. eastmans yummy ribs which he snuck one to me while I was waiting in line because he told me they were going to be gone by the time I got up there) with the english ward and a birthday party with the spanish branch the same night. lots of people came to both! 

6. woke up to maggots all over our kitchen floor this morning and spent an hour sweeping them all up and then 2 minutes later the floor would be covered again and we would have more to sweep up. We have no idea where they are coming from but it is disgusting! there are so many bugs in arkansas.

7. but the best of all........ EARL GOT BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!! So that is pretty dang exciting :) Earl is the cutest man ever. He really does remind me so much of great grandpa. It was a bit stressful though. He gave up smoking about a week and a half before his baptism but when he left the hospital last week his nurse who drove him home gave him a cigarette.... so that was lame. but we had him sign a contract in his book of mormon to never smoke again and told him to pray for strength to quit and he totally has! The power of the Atonement is real and something I have learned is that when you truly repent you no longer have that desire to sin. Earl feels that way and its so cool to see :) However his daughters husband is a less active member and he said that him and his family wouldnt be to the baptism unless he quits smoking for 30 days. We wanted them to be there but we left it up to Earl. We told him to pray about it. Well the day before his interview to be baptized we called him on the phone and asked how he was and he said, "I am tired girls. I stayed up all night praying about what to do. Because I know this is a serious commitment and I want to do the right thing here. I decided I want to go ahead and be baptized this Saturday even if my family wont be there." It was super cool just to see how God can guide us and give us the strength to do hard things. We met his daughter at his house the day before as we were helping get his stuff ready to go and she was very supportive of him being baptized but told us she wouldnt be there :( but the ward really took Earl in and made him feel like family at his baptism. We thought we had everything all ready to go for the baptism but of course at the last second something always goes wrong for baptisms... We put the Elders in charge of filling the water and we show up about 30 minutes before the baptism is supposed to start and the Elders said that the water temperature is at 130 degrees!!!!!!!!!! Lovely. They put completely hot water on and no cold... oh silly Elders ;) It was steaming. They were having a baptism at the same time as well so thats why we put them in charge of filling the font and we did the program. So we had bishop and a member run and get bags of ice and we dumped them in to try and cool it down. it was hilarious and thank heavens that cooled it down a little bit. It was still pretty hot though when they got in. Its alright though. It probably just felt like a hot tub :) and then a couple hours before the baptism the Plumbs called and told us they werent going to make it back in time from the temple for the baptism. They were stuck in dead traffic for over 2 hours :( Bro. Plumb was going to baptize Earl and sis. Plumb was going to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. We were so sad they werent going to be able to make it because they are the ones that introduced us to Earl and went to almost every lesson with us. But they told us to go ahead and go on without them for the baptism. So with a few adjustments in the program, everything turned out fine. Betty went first, and then they had Elder Petty and Bro. Smith baptize Earl because his body is a little bit old a fragile ;) He only had to get dunked twice though and he was so happy afterwards! And then on Sunday Bro. Plumb was able to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost :) Earl told us, "You know what girls, I am just going to have to adopt you as my grandaughters." When we were half an our late to a lesson with him he called and left us a voice mail, "Hello, this is officer Dyer. I am just wanting to report 2 missing girls." He is stinkin cute. I told him I will be back in a year when he goes through the temple! 

Well sorry that was a bit lengthy. But the gospel is true. It changes lives and makes us be able to have happiness that lasts rather than instant satisfaction that the world gives. Love you all! 

Hermana Goudie

In his "bunny suit" is what he called it. Isn't he cute!?

He made us take one like this because he didn't like the "bunny suit"

And this is Betty. She got baptized the same time as Earl. She is a sweetheart!