I got to Baptize them Both

So as I have little time, I´ll get right to it.  We had the baptisms last week!  They were a mom - Mari - and her 11 year old daughter Evelin.  They are such a good family, I love them.  And even cooler, I got to baptize them both!  First baptisms in the mission - woohoo!!  It only took me 10 months to do it :) haha.  Really, it feels so incredible to have a baptism.  Seeing the change in the people, being able to be the one to do the baptizing, it´s an uncomparable feeling.  They were confirmed on Sunday by the branch president, and they seem like they´ll be full active members very easily thanks to some good members who have befriended them.  I´m way excited, and will let you know what develops with future baptisms!

So I was thinking about what I could share in my weekly emails to have a continuous thing going, and I thought that the perfect way to share something with everyone would be to go over an Article of Faith every week in my emails.  For those of you who aren´t members of the church, the 13 Articles of Faith are 13 basic principle beliefs of our church that explain our doctrines.  So, that being said, this week I start with Article of Faith number 1.

"We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."
 

This is the foundation of all our beliefs.  For good reason it is our doctrinal statement number 1.  We believe on God the Eternal Father - that He exists, that He loves us because He is our Father in a very literal sense, that He has all power and all knowledge.  We believe that He has a tangible body of flesh and bones, perfected and glorified.  We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world and humankind.  He has established His church throughout the history of the world by means of a prophet, and He continues to do so today.  Without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the fate of mankind would be doomed to a very dim destruction.  He was flawless.  Thus, He paid for all of our sins - each and every one of us His brothers and sisters - and through obedience to His gospel, we can be saved in the kingdom of God with our families in eternal happiness.  He, like the Father, also has a perfected and glorified body of flesh and bones.  The Holy Ghost is a seperate Personage that makes up the third member of the Godhead.  He is the Spirit of God, the illuminator of intelligence and testfier of truth.  Only by means of the Holy Ghost can we obtain true and living testimonies of the divinity of God the Father and Jesus Christ.  He is our constant guide on the earth, so long as we are worthy of His presence.  Because He does not have a physical body, he can abide in all of us after the ordinances of baptism and confirmation and can play on the influence of the Light of Christ that is in all of us.  These 3 divine Beings, the Holy Godhead, are the rhyme and reason for the gospel and church, and are the foundational principles on which we base all doctrine.

And, as time has once again become my enemy, I end here.  I love and miss you all, until next week!

-Elder Moore