Steven's Baptism

Steven was baptized a few days ago and confirmed a member of the church. He is now the newest member of the Placentia YSA Ward (PYSA). He is one amazing person. I am just so impressed with Steven in so many ways. I truly look up to this guy. He doesn’t like being the center of attention so he wanted a very low-key baptism. We gave him just that. There were seriously like no people at his baptism. He loved it, though. It just seemed so weird to me but that is what he wanted. There was me, Elder Bannister, the bishop, the stake president, Steven's mom, 3 of Steven's non-member friends, and 2 of Steven's member friends. That was it. The room was like completely empty. The spirit was still super strong all throughout his baptism. Steven got up at the end and bore a very solid testimony of how he joined the church and what he knows to be true. This was also the first baptism I have attended that did not have any refreshments. Steven didn’t want that either. He’s such a funny guy. The thing is he’s not introverted, shy, or weird at all. He is like one of the most talkative, outgoing people I have ever met. He just doesn’t like to have the spotlight on him. He sees baptism as a personal thing and doesn’t think that the whole world should be there to witness it/celebrate something that is to be so personal. Steven is a big soccer player so we played a little soccer in the parking lot after his baptism to celebrate. We used his friend's car's trunk as a goal. It was fun. It was just so funny to hear Steven after his baptism. We kept joking around with him how he’s a mormon now and he would say things like "I never saw this coming... I can’t believe it actually happened... I’m like super mormon now." Everyone is so shocked he became a member of the church. Even the members in the ward can’t believe it. No one even knew he was baptized until sacrament meeting came around and he was confirmed a member. I loved seeing everyone's reaction to the bishop when he announced how Steven was baptized the previous day and was going to be confirmed during sacrament meeting. Steven was what you call an eternal investigator that no one thought would ever get baptized. I had heard he has been around the church for years and never baptized before I met him and then the first time I met him I personally invited him in a very bold way to be baptized on October 15th and he said yes. It was strange. I almost didn’t believe he would be baptized. But he did it. He is officially a member of the church now. As Steven puts it, "we got the W". He’s even become a great fellowshipper for a couple of the other eternal investigators we have. We had such a good linger longer at church 2 days ago. Steven sat with one of our other investigators and shared his entire conversion story with him. They really hit it off and now we are planning on teaching the both of them. Steven will be our new member missionary. I'm lovin' it! Steven just thanked Elder Bannister and I over and over again for what we did for him. He told us how we are 2 of the greatest blessings in his life. He said how he was never able to open up to other elders like he did with me and Elder Bannister. He brought up one experience we had in which he broke down in tears with us a couple weeks ago and said he has never really cried like that in front of anyone before. He said he trusts us like brothers and believes we were the elders for him. He told us how he has felt our love and care and is grateful to God for that. I was touched by everything he said. He also brought up his desire to serve a mission. Steven is 25 right now and asked us if he could serve a mission in a year. We let him know that it is possible and he said that he will start preparing now. I thought that was amazing. I really hope and pray Steven can/will serve a mission next year. We'll see.