Shauna Graves' Mission: 20th Birthday! - Baptisms In The Ocean

Okay here's the story of how my birthday started yesterday. I woke up at 4 am because I had severe back pain and could not fall back asleep. I have become aware of what adulthood is really going to be like. I'm not sure how excited I am anymore. That's it tho. That's the whole story

I really had a good birthday! My mom and Dad sent me some cute decorations for the apartment and a few small gifts. Sister Burch made me Avocado toast and stuck some candles in it for breakfast. Later the Elders also came over to give us the sacrament and they showed up with a balloon and some treats for me. They are the BEST! And Sister Telford and Sister Peterson made me a cake!! So good!!! My favorite gift was a little photo album that my mom put together of family and friends holding little papers saying happy birthday and stuff like that. It was so so so much fun to go through. I felt so loved. Kinda hard to not be with the people you love the most on your birthday, but hey. This work is more important than my birthday :)

We also got to attend the baptism of Pilar on Saturday!! Hermana Pilar is a friend of the Elders that I serve with here in San Francisco. They invited us to come and sing musicals numbers. They also asked me to bear my testimony. That was the first time I'd talked in front of a crowd in Spanish. Corona virus will kinda delay those events sometimes haha. It was a super fun day for all of us. Pilar was so so so so happy. She was so emotional. Another thing that's really cool is that here in our mission we are still doing baptisms in the ocean. We do some in the chapels too but it's really cool in the ocean. Pilar reallllllly wanted to be baptized in the ocean "like Jesus was". Cute because Jesus was baptized in a river. But close enough:) We are so grateful for her and her desire to change. She is really an angel.

We also got to teach Hermana Palencia's daughter about baptism yesterday! We got to do it in English which was fun. She was so excited. I told her about all of my memories from my baptism and Sister Burch did the same. It's fun to see that you can feel the spirit so strong even when you're talking to an 8 year old girl. How special! I remember being SO happy when I was baptized. Honestly it's one of the happiest memories I have from my entire life. I was happy to be able to share that with a little girl who gets to make the same promise with God next week :) All of you should try to remember your baptism this week and remember the feelings you have felt and the tender memories you have from that day.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes yesterday

Have a good week :))

Love,

Hermana Graves

1- There is a lot of art is this city...but this one just seemed so random...it had to be documented