August 21st, 2003 I went to work as usual and then came home. At around 5pm, I brought my Wife and Son with me to the event that the West Side Church was having at the local park that I knew about from the flyer I had received the day before. Actually my Son rode his bike and my Wife and I drove there. While I was there I participated in a fun watermelon seed spitting contest. I won the contest; I guess I still have quite a bit of hot air in me. LOL. There was also some free food that was going to be served and after the contest I went over to the pavilion where they were cooking and I saw Ray my co-worker from the prison making hotdogs. Ray and I started talking and I brought up the subject about getting baptized. I told him I felt the need to get baptized and soon. The night before I had just read the book of John and this time when I read it, I felt the need for public baptism as soon as possible. Ray looked to his left where the youth pastor at his church just happened to be standing. Ray then said to him, "You will baptize him right?" The Youth Pastor said to me assuredly, "Oh yeah, come on over to my place on the lake, we baptize people over there all the time. Whenever you want, just stop on by." I then looked at him and said, "Why wait? Isn't there a lake a couple hundred feet from here?" He looked at me again and said, "You want to do it right now?" I said, "Yes, right now would be good". He said, "Ok, let's go." I told him, "I am going to tell my family." He then went to get the senior pastor from the West Side Church and I went to get my Wife and Son so they could be witness to my baptism. We all started walking down to the lake and the 2 pastors introduced themselves to me, "Hi, we are Tim and Jim from the West Side." I just thought, "Oh Wow, I can certainly remember that!" The water was warm, we walked out about 20 feet into the lake and Pastor Jim said to me, "I am only going to ask you one thing. Do you believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?" I said with a confident voice, "Yes I do!" There were more words said by them at this time that I do not remember, I was in a state of joy. I am sure whatever they said at that time was just perfect. Then I was leaned backwards and dunked under the water. The water came up onto my face but my whole face did not go under the water, just like half of it, sparing me from the water running up my nose.

I then thought of how when I was at home one day a few months back and I was showering. I asked God to let me receive the Holy Spirit in me and I wondered if I could do that without some formal ceremony. I prayed to him to let the Holy Spirit come into me and that if it could be done in this way, that I wanted it to only be a partial coming in so to speak because I told him I still wanted to be baptized in the Spirit at some random public event in a body of natural water just like John the Baptist had done to Jesus and many others. So after Pastor Tim and Pastor Jim pulled me up out of the Lake, which is also a river in that Moosehead Lake is just a large wide area of the Moosehorn River, I had a thought come over me of "I was just baptized the rest of the way." Half way when I was at my home, and halfway just now. I think this was figuratively speaking mind you. Wow, how wonderful I thought. Can you be baptized halfway? Probably not, it is probably either all or nothing. But I asked God for it to be that way and it sure seemed like it happened in just that manner fleshwise. He knew I wanted to be baptized in a natural body of water and He also knew that when I asked for it to come over me when I was at home, He knew I was sincere and He granted me that gift, spiritually once, fleshly - twice.

When I asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit while showering at my home, I had this feeling come over me that was quite unique. It lasted for about 30 - 45 seconds. I felt lifted and from within me there was a sort of easy pressure on my body and a sort of light headedness. It felt euphoric, like a sort of head rush, almost like a slight drunkenness but different. Like a whole body rush. It is very hard to describe but it was good feeling in nature, not scary at all. I had that same sort of feeling come over me in October, 2003 and it lasted a lot longer. But that happened after I ended this part of this book. So you can read about that in the next book or as an "add on" to this one.

Here is the fun part about my baptism that day. It was witnessed by 2 of my family members. It was also witnessed by 2 of my Co-workers Jeff and Ray. I was baptized by 2 pastors whose names are the same as 2 friends of mine who happen to also be "brothers on the West Side" of St. Paul, MN. So when Pastor Jim and Pastor Tim from the West Side introduced themselves to me as, "Hi, we are Jim and Tim, we're from the West Side." They didn't even use the word church. As the church part of this event was a given maybe. But that's exactly how it was said to me. When I said, "I can remember that." It was easy to remember because it rhymed. After I was baptized by them, it hit me like a brick wall. "Duh, Wow, Jim and Tim from the West Side!" "Oh my God, what are the odds of that?" God probably answered that one, but I was just having so much fun, I didn't hear exactly what the odds of it were. LOL. I played with Jim and Tim, 2 Mexican brothers from the West Side for many years. They lived really close to me in our neighborhood. I also knew where I would be going to church - The West Side Church which is west of Moose Lake.

I know this may all seem weird to you, but that is how it happened. I have now read many peoples testimonies about how the Holy Spirit feels when it comes into you, and they are amazing and none of them are truly the same for each person. It is almost like it is customized for each and every person, yet some were very similar to mine. So don't expect anything in particular if you are, and yet expect anything and everything to happen because you may just get exactly that, anything and everything. Either way, you will know when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will change. It happens in many different ways and it has many different results or effects of it thereafter. There are many gifts of the Holy Spirit and you should seek them all. I urge you to ask others if they have experienced this or have heard of this. You can definitely read about it from other people who have written accounts of such testimonies.