Sister Benson: 5/2/22

 

Week 24: First Breath of a New Life

This week was CRAAZY. What a wild ride my life is. 

We started off the week with a baptismal interview for our bestie James! And of course he passed with flying colors :)) We did his interview Tuesday afternoon and he was super excited. We were so excited for him! How could we not be? We (collectively) had been waiting a year for this week!! So his interview was a great success. And then.... drum roll.... it was Wednesday. AND HE GOT BAPTIZED!! But back up. Cause the baptism was at 5:00 pm. But preparation began at 2:30. So Sister Swain and I showed up at the church around 2:30. We swept nasty spiders out of the font, started the water, then I realized i wanted to clean the glass and the mirror so... we improvised. As seen in later pictures. We printed programs (or at least tried), set up chairs, found jumpsuits and unlocked doors. And then people started showing up. Ernie was the one baptizing so when he showed up our ward mission leader, Greg, absolutely drilled him on the prayer. And Ernie- being a true army sergeant- had the thing memorized by the time he was in the font. Sister McCary spoke on baptism once we got started. It was a beautiful talk by a beautiful lady :) Then it was time for the actual baptism. Ernie and James got in the font, Ernie said everything perfectly... and then it got a little scary. Ernie and James are both... well on in years. And disabled veterans. And so Ernie almost dropped him and James just kinda went stiff... but limp? At the same time? Imagine like a wooden rag doll. And THEN he sort of couldnt get him up but he somehow did and we only had to do it once! Go team!! And then. The title of todays email. James came out of the water and the first thing he did was take a deep breath and say, "This is the first breath of a new life". And it was the sweetest thing in the world. Because isnt that so true? Shouldnt we all be saying that after we repent? Everytime we take the sacrament? The first breath of a new life. Heavenly Father LOVES us and He has given us second, fifth, and eight-hundreth chances. Mmmm... the first breath of a new life. 

 The other amazing thing that happened this week was Rebuild Together. And yall I wish I had more pictures of it but I dont right now. When they post them Ill send them, even if its in December :) So Rebuild Together Waycross is a community lead giant... service organization? So! It is anyone in (or out) of Waycross who wants to sign up. People in need submit applications for help on their houses and the board decides which ones become projects. There were 11 different project this year, so 11 different teams. Our team was made up of Waycross 2nd ward members! So we all met at this HUGE baptist church at 7:00 am for breakfast and briefing. It was a breakfast bowl of grits and sausage obviously. Then we were all given our houses!! We drove on over at 8:00 am. Our house was owned by the Bethesda House Ministry. Which is a recovery home for women dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. So we were working on getting their second home put together, for women who graduated the year long program. We didnt really know anything about it going in though. So the skilled people started working on rebuilding the porch, which Sister Swain and I went inside with the kids and started painting. I wish I had before and after pictures!! Because we painted the ENITRE upper floor. Three rooms, the hallway and the stairway. Which, if youve never painted a high roofed stairway... its not easy. But it was SUCH a fun time. First of all we got to know some of the kids in the ward. Maggie, Timothy and Johnathan were pretty much attached to us the whole time. We rolled, trimmed and.... went back and fixed where the trim got messed up. :) For a bit we kept to ourselves and then we started talking to the ladies from Bethesda House. And THIS is when we found out what it was. And it was AMAZING. Sister Swain and I became quick friends with these ladies. They told us their stories and we were just amazing. They had come from so low, and through Christ they had come so far. We grew to love them in the short time we had with them. As we worked alongside them our relationship grew. They invited us to come to dinner at the ministry, and told us we could come to bible studies if we wanted to! Of course we want to!! They were so so sweet. I unfortunately dont have any pictures with them... so when we go to dinner we'll have to take some. It was the most amazing experience. By 5:30 we were all covered in dirt and paint, dead tired and full of snickers bars. So we all headed to the celebration dinner. Where we ate lots of cake and they gave out awards. Then the man leading the thing opened it up to anyone who wanted to say something. Well our beautiful ladies from Bethesda House got up and said that connection was the opposite of addiction. And that today they had made connections, with people theyd never met. They then said theyd met two ladies from Utah who they had grown to love and even invited to dinner with them. Theyre smiles were everything. I loved that day. When I come back and visit Waycross, we're coming the last week of April so that we can do Rebuild Together with the Waycross 2nd ward. 

I love yall! Have a good week!!