I have done a lot of thinking about missionary work (no dah), and baptism and retention rate lately. For awhile now, it seems like sometimes the young missionaries just solely concentrate on dunking people, not about really sharing the gospel in it's fulness (or half-fullness, if you will). I am speaking about several people that we have known and been part of the baptism....Hazel, Linsey, Hortensia, Steffanie etc. It has been several weeks since we saw Hazel, Linsey, or Steffanie. I am concerned that once people are baptized into the Jefferson 1st ward, that because of it being a transient ward, people just don't make the friendships necessary to help encourage attendance at church. Church is such a social thing, that unless you have someone saying "Hi," or "Glad you came", that it is easy not to come once you have been baptized. Perhaps new members find out how much commitment is expected of them, and then they feel they can't keep up with expectations. Or perhaps, they don't really understand the Gospel and just feel that now they have made the commitment to be baptized, they are saved and don't need to do anything.
Anyhow, I have been concerned because I haven't seen Linsey for several months now. Perhaps he and his family have moved. He was baptized, changed his life around, was ordained, and started passing the sacrament. Then he disappeared. I don't know what has happened to him. I wish I had been more friendly to him.
Hazel was baptized and confirmed and then he just didn't come anymore....until today. He was late for church but made it for Priesthood. I am so glad he came!
Hortensia has been coming each Sunday, and so has her husband. I am also so-o-o-o glad to see them each week.
Steffanie was baptized in Oct. and came for a couple of weeks. It seems like months have passed. Until today. She was at church and came and sat with us. She has been very busy at work with the Christmas holidays. She has to walk to church, and to get there by 9:00am really is something.
So, three of the four individuals who are new members are still trying to come to church and be active and learn the gospel. They all said they plan on being in attendance next week as well. We are off to a good start for these three! I hope to introduce them to more ward members. But, I almost feel like the regular-attending "J1" members don't really want to reach very far out of their comfort circles to meet and support new members. So in the meantime, we will try to go out of our way to make them feel wanted and needed in J1.
On a side note, we attended a baptism for three individuals yesterday. The baptism was immediately following a stake baptism of young children. One of the children thought it OK to unplug the font. So, by the time anyone noticed that the water was quickly leaving, there was only a few inches left. The font had to be quickly filled, and one of the things about fonts, when you try to hurry the filling process, mainly cold water comes out. Brrrrr, a cold baptism for the three. Also, it takes about a half hour to fill a font. These are things you might need to know sometime....i"m not sure when, but maybe sometime. And oh, if you have a child or grandchild being baptized, make sure they don't pull the plug.
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