Meetko's Baptism

Dear Family and Friends,
I've been keeping a secret from everyone. Mostly just waiting for the right moment. Now its time to bring it up.
Friday, March 20th 2009 I had my first baptism. A little gypsie boy named Meetko. The older members of the family were already members. Meetko turned eight a month ago and he wanted me to do the baptism. I wanted the father to do it, but he just didn't feel ready... We've been workin with im though so hopefully hell be ready for his next 2 sons.
So I just wanted to say that there is nothing cooler than being apart of something this big. I am so happy.. a little worn though. Friday was a mess. Early in the morning we had to travel to Varna to grab the baptismal font... lost alot of time there because we didn't have all the things we needed. Then we had to carry all the stuff without a vehicle and no one else but me and my comp, i still feel wrecked.While building the font we ran into problems... first we had been missing a pole and had carried with us two unneeded awkwardly sized poles for something else. Then after some improvisation (duct tape, a chair and one of the poles) we had it.Then we didnt have a hose that could work with any of our faucets. My comp ended up filling the whole thing with buckets, poor guy.after awhile we found two holes... again duct tape became our best friend.Our heaters didnt work and eventually the flooding blew a fuse and shut out the power. Now we're running at 65% stability with some of rooms without power. Our security system is even fried.So then we were getting to about an hour left before the baptism and our font was leaking, freezing cold and our power was out.People started showing up and sitting down and getting ready and at least we got the front lighting working. After mentioning the pool was frozen cold everyone was on the fritz.. but not Meetko, he said "I can endure it." I was amazed at how well he understood the sacredness of the event even as just an eight year old boy. His brother was all about screaming and Meetko just calmly expalined to him "We can't play right now, its a special day."His fathers talk was way funny but really good. Things just went well. even with the pressure of current problems in the branch and busy work, we had this perfect moment of solice. The water didn't feel in the least bit cold, but I knew it should've been frozen and unbearable but I didn't feel it. Meetkos father then lifted his son into the font bitting his tongue in waiting for the possible painful reaction to the cold. But I knew even Meetko could feel what I felt... the warmth. He didn't shiver or complain, only smiled and said he was ready. After the dunking him and bringing him back out the cold of the water came.the meeting ended good as well with his mother speaking.
I love you all,
Elder Briggs

March 9 Varna Zone Conference

Dear parents,

Last week we had Zone Conference in all three zones. Our three-minute talk topic was, “He That Heareth You Heareth Me” (Luke 10:16); we were privileged to hear from several of our missionaries. It’s always amazing how we can all have the same topic and how varied the talks are. We were taught about leadership (by building ice cream sundaes) from our Assistants and the Zone Leaders enlightened us as to how we can use Church art to spark the interest of investigators. Conference ended with presentations from Sister and President Bennett. I hope you enjoy the attached group picture.

I also hope that your “son” (daughters always smile pretty) has a more pleasing expression as we emphasized that they should smile for their parents. There’s still room for improvement!

Warmest regards, Sister Jewell