Donnie Graves was Baptized!

Hello! We’ve had a great couple of weeks since I wrote last! On Saturday, November 17th, Donnie Graves was baptized! We’d been teaching him for a few weeks, and he was really excited about learning the Gospel, coming to church and finally being baptized. He loves praying and talking with us about Jesus Christ, and one of his friends, Jon, sat in on a lesson and then decided to come to Donnie’s baptism.

Our ward gave great support to Donnie, he has probably met almost everyone in the ward because he is so outgoing. Between meetings, he walks around and introduces himself to everyone he doesn’t know. Our Elder’s Quorum President, Christian, was asked to baptize him. As Donnie came up from the water, his non-member friend, Jon, was nodding his head and clapping, it was really funny. He realized what an important step this was in Donnie’s life. We’ve since begun teaching Jon, and Donnie, our newest member of the ward, comes with us to help give support.

On Sunday the 18th, it was Stake Conference for the Durham Stake, and we heard from Elder W. Douglas Shumway and other great speakers. It was fun meeting Elder Shumway and getting to know him a little bit. Before the general meeting, we were able to attend a new member meeting. It was amazing to hear a few of the stories of these recent converts who’ve been members for less than two years! So many of them were in our ward as well! Donnie was the newest; he’d been a member for less than a full day!

There were some great speakers, but I’d have to say my favorite was our very own Laurel Gray, who was baptized only a month ago! She was asked to speak at the last minute, and she did so well! She said she was really nervous. My advice was to just be herself and say what she felt and she’d do great!

Laurel shared, with the entire Durham Stake, her history of going in and out of different churches with her parents until she came to Duke and learned about the Restored Gospel from her roommate, Rebecca, a member from Salt Lake. She talked about learning from the missionaries and about how supportive Rebecca was by answering her questions and just being a great friend to her.

The next part kind of surprised me, in a good way. Laurel talked about how much the Gospel really MEANT to her, that she really KNEW it was true. She talked about how thankful she was to Rebecca for having the courage to just share the Gospel with her, and really asked people to have the courage to talk about the church with their friends. It was so powerful! And it wasn’t coming from a missionary or a church leader, but someone who had recently discovered the truth of the Gospel, and how much it really meant to them!

Rebecca was also given the chance to speak, and she talked about what a great experience it was to share her testimony with Laurel, that it really helped her faith increase. They are both so happy and fun together, I’m sure they’ll be friends for a long time, strengthening each other in the Gospel.

Brother Nichols, the Chapel Hill Institute Director, invited seven missionaries to Thanksgiving with his family! It was really fun being with a family in a home for a change. It was really good getting to know the Nichols and the other Elders better, and to realize what I am thankful for. I believe the three things that I cherish the most are still my faith, family and friends. If you can hold onto and strengthen these things, you can get through anything!

Thank you so much for your prayers, letters and support!

Elder Walters