Weekly Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

I am going to start with  the baptism that almost wasn't.  We had the baptism for Jeremy, the young man with autism, planned for this past Saturday.  For a few weeks now he has been saying he wants to be baptized, but when Saturday morning came he started having cold feet.  The biggest issue was he is afraid of water, especially when it covers his head.  It took a little persuasion to get him into his jumpsuit, but finally got him dressed.  Then it came time to get him into the baptismal font. Something we didn't know until after was he has a friend that was baptized into a different church and he convinced himself that if his friend could do it, so could he. We finally got him into the font but then he didn't want the elder to touch him because that was invading his personal space. When he finally got the courage he dunked himself before the elder could give the baptismal prayer. So we had to dunk him again after a few more minutes of persuasion.  Success!  Then he said next time he wasn't going to do that again. Then it was time to confirm him and again we had another issue with his personal space. He didn't want anybody to touch him. The Branch President did a good job of calming him down and allowing them to touch him.  As soon as they were done confirming him and before the Branch President finished welcoming him, he was out the door; he'd had enough. He didn't even take time for refreshments and he loves sweets.  It was an interesting baptism.  In spite of all that went on, he showed real courage to be baptized. We were really impressed with the way the young elders handled it, they showed a lot of patience and kindness. We have attached a picture from the baptism - Elder Bulpit, Sis. Zimmerman (the mother), Jeremy, Elder Denning and Patrick in the front.

We were able to go to our District Council meeting on Friday in Morgantown. They forecast more snowy, icy conditions but we went anyway and the roads were fine. We hate to miss those meetings because we always feel so uplifted and really enjoy the company of the young elders and sisters. They like us to come because we always bring treats. This week it was Nutty Bars, a family favorite. After the meeting we went to Sam's Club to get some gas and buy a few things (mostly treats) and found the missionaries eating cheaply in the food court so we joined them.

Monday was our turn to provide treats for family home evening.  We decided to make the Chocolate Oat Nut cake that Mom and Patricia used to make quite often for family get togethers. Thank you, Patricia, for the recipe. Our friends really liked it. We are getting a reputation for sharing outstanding baked goods.  Tuesday we did dinner for the YSA kids. We did biscuits and gravy.  It sounds like all we do is cook, but it really isn't that often and we enjoy making people happy with food.

Mom's scripture this week comes from Mosiah 18:10, "Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you? "  Mom chose this because of Jeremy's baptism on Saturday.  Even with his reduced mental capacity he chose to be baptized."

That's all for this week. We are excited be with Holli and Ben and Eliza this next weekend.  We'll let you know more about that next week. We love you and pray for you daily.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandad

Jamee and Kerry

Sister and Elder Cooper