WOAAAH NELLIE COMPLETE VERSION (

Sorry everyone, me in my ultimate gooberness sent out the email before it was completed...

From: Kelley Valentine <kelley.valentine@myldsmail.net>
Date: March 24, 2014 at 10:47:33 AM EDT
To: Kelley Valentine <kelley.valentine@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Woaaah Nellie

I heard a woman say that recently.
My companion, Elder Beck, didn't understand what it meant, so I told
him it was an old saying.
The lady put her hand on her hips and said "Uh uh, did you just date me?"
She then went on to say that that was not "tubular or rad" whatsoever.
Hahaha such a funny moment.

ANYWAY!
There was another baptism last saturday! WOOH BACK TO BACK BAPTISMS
FOR THE CHINESE BRANCH! YEAHYUH!
At church yesterday, there were 45 people! It was awesome (We actually
filled the relief society room for sacrament meeting and had to bring
out extra water cups! Woot woot!! There were 7 new people there
altogether! Our Branch president was soooo happy. He had the biggest
grin on his face. As we were sitting in a completely filled gospel
class, (he and I were in the far corner because of how many people
were in the class) he leaned over and slapped me on the leg and said
"Every week. Let's do this every week." and then a few moments later
"I love this." He couldn't be quite about how stoked he was. It was
awesome. It was like watching a forty year old man show his birthday
boy side.

His excitement made me feel like I was that kid in an elementary
class who had the gold star on his chest.

ANYWHO

LINLIN'S BAPTISM OH MY GOODNESS. This is the one who is a little
slower than the rest. The baptism is going fine, she starts giggling
when they are about to perform the baptism but then as they start to
lean her over into the water.....

"AAAAHYEEEEEEEEEE AHHAHAHAHAHA"

SHE POPS OUT AND STARTS GIGGLING AND SCREAMING! This process happened
about 9 more times (please, trust me when I tell you I am being
serious and am not exaggerating whatsoever!)! People were gathered
around trying to coax her and calm her, but nothing seemed to be working! They had her try and put her face in the water herself so she could feel it before the next attempt, but as soon as her face got close to the water she would laugh and scream.

Soooo what ended up happening was they shut the font doors (so it people could not see the baptism happening) in order to help her not feel as nervous... President Hsu then asked Elder Johnson to play some music during the baptism. Man, I have not heard someone pound those keys so hard! You could hear more screaming and giggling emanating from the font behind the music. After a while, the bathroom side doors open and these people come out with these thumbs up signs and everyone smiling. I was expecting someone to walk out and announce "IT'S A GIRL!" because I really felt like I was sitting outside in a waiting room hearing some crazy thing happening that I could not see.

Needless to say, it was a baptism unlike any other.

She was totally cool about it afterwards, saying things like "Yeah, so were any of you as scared of the water like I was?"

Saturday night we started tracting.... Knocked on the first door and it was a lady who invited us in as soon as she discovered we could speak chinese! Yaaay :) We had a lesson! AND SHE CAME TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY! Now that is a missionary miracle. A one door knock out! :)

Lu Jiang's lessons are going great! All of the other youth in the branch and in other wards are bonding together to help teach him on the sundays he comes to church. It is wonderful :) It's really sad, actually. His mother is in china, and his dad is at work all day, so he just lounges around and reads books by himself all day. He told us we can come teach him every single day if we wanted to because he is always just at home.

I am so excited that he is making new friends at church. Really really

Hey everyone, Thanks for reading! I am so glad to be out here :) The chinese program is on fire right now-- altogether there are 6 to 8 people on date for our branch. We have had about 500% to 1000% growth so far compared to the years before we came. It is truly wonderful. I love my branch. I love my chinese family. I love being able to give the gospel to the members of my family I haven't quite met yet!

Have a great one, all :)

Love,

Elder Ching chong fong kang wong ping pong Valentine