"I Want to Learn More!"

We went on exchanges with the other sisters in our apartment.  It was so much fun!  We visited with members in our ward and also found a new investigator.  She was a referral from our Ward Mission Leader in the Spanish Ward.  He works in a welding shop in front of her house.  During his lunch breaks he reads the Book of Mormon and because of that, our new investigator would start up conversations with him about the church, and now she's interested in learning more.

Hidden Members!

We found some hidden members! Those are my favorite!  They're people you run into who say, "Hey guess what? I'm a member of your church!"  The husband of one of our investigators who's preparing for baptism (Yay!!!) was one before I arrived.  The first two we ran into were two teenage boys who described their baptism as "they dip you in the water like strawberries in chocolate!"  A year in the field and this was the first time I'd ever heard baptism described así.  Then we were walking down the street on the way to another appointment when a man called out to us and asked us if we had a Book of Mormon on hand.  With the new teaching style that we're using, we don't normally carry around copies of the Book of Mormon to hand out.  But he explained that he was a member baptized in Mexico but he had gotten heavily into alcohol and was not happy.  We taught him a condensed version of the Restoration which brought him to tears, gave him a card with our information, took down his information and we're going to go back again this week! 

Weekly Report - March 3

This week was great because we each of our goals, with the exception of one . The only goal we did not hit was "investigators" at church . We had everything lined up for our investigator family to go , but their ride to church "fell through".  We were in another town at the singles ward , so by the time we even found out there was a problem , it was too late to do anything about it . We were not super- happy about it , but there 's always next week!

On the bright side , we decided to pass the house of a part member family and were told that the non-member of the family wanted to be baptized ! ! : D: D: D Actually, this is my favorite family EVERRRRR ! So I'm really , really, really excited! : D: D: D The baptismal date in later on in March. Oh yeah , and we're planning a wedding for them! : D Hahahaa I am sooooooooo excited!

Also, we found out that the way in which the missionaries will  present the gospel will change. We received training in the new way of teaching . The zone leaders told us that we would need to change a lot, but when it was presented to us, there was not much changed . It's super fun because now we have to figure out this new way of missionary work; every contact is a trial and error run! It makes life interesting! :)

We're teaching this individual who has some interesting stories to tell us about his life . To help introduce the Book of Mormon , we shared the story of Nephi going to get the plates . Man, he ate that story up! He absolutely loved it! Periodically we'd stop to ask him how he'd feel if he were in the same situation as Nephi and his brothers . The insights he was giving were so unique . When we told him about Laban throwing Laman out and trying to kill him , we asked him how he would feel and he starts saying  "it 's one thing to mess with me , but when It 's with my family , That crosses the line! " Long story short  he really, really, really liked it . Telling him about  Nephi killing Laban was a bit interesting haha ! The scriptures teach us valuable lessons so y'all better read them! ;)

Little Miracles!

This past week we saw a lot of little miracles.  We visited a girl who we had taught the Restoration to a couple weeks ago and she had read Moroni 10, felt the Spirit, and believed it was true.  She is willing to read the entire Book of Mormon and the only thing holding her back from accepting a baptism date is she works on Sunday and knows that once she is baptized, she will be committing to go to church.  She's golden! - It was a nice ending to a rough day :)

We Have a Message For You!

We met this wonderful lady!  We went and knocked on her door.  We asked her how a message about Jesus Christ could help her.  She opened right up and told us about a vacancy that she's felt in her life.  We taught to her needs, told her about the Book of Mormon (which she eagerly accepted), and invited her to be baptized.  She now has a baptismal date!

Additional Scriptures? Why, Yes!

The last few weeks, we have run into people who are opposed to the Book of Mormon.  In my entire mission, I have never run into so many people with the same doubt and they have no hesitation bringing it up as soon as we open our mouths.  Because of this, however, my companion and I have practically perfected our approach to that doubt, and I think God is rewarding our diligence, because yesterday, we ran into a guy who literally asked us why there weren't more books than just the Bible.  With smiles on our faces, we eagerly told him that there were more books. I love those moments on the mission!

Scripture Study Blesses Your Life!

In my personal study, I have been focusing a lot on how to study because in order to help our investigators study the scriptures, I need to know how to do it myself.  Every morning, I read a chapter of the Book of Mormon.  It has become such a part of my daily routine that I can't believe there was a time when I didn't read the scriptures.  There is so much in them.  It takes time to really get to a point where you believe they actually help you, but if you exercise a little bit of faith on what the prophets have said and actually read and study them every day, you will begin to see how they will bless your life.

Reading both the Book of Mormon and the Bible is so important especially in preparing for a mission.  You need a knowledge of both.  I love reading the Bible because it explains where our beliefs as Christians came from.  It's like a philosophy book.  The Book of Mormon has a great story line.

"...We Have Some Bibles!"

We met a family with two little kids.  After introducing ourselves and talking a little with the parents, we began to tell the kids Book of Mormon stories.  We told the story about Samuel the Lamanite and when Christ came to the Americas.  The kids we so engrossed in the stories it was adorable.  When it was time to leave, the kids were sad because they wanted to hear more.  We wanted to leave them with a Book of Mormon, but we didn't have any more copies in Spanish.  Then son then said, "Oh wait, we have some Bibles!"  He went to the back of the truck and pulled out two copies of the Book of Mormon.  Apparently, they had been taught by the missionaries before, so we left them with some stories to read and will be going back sometime later this week

Baptism Invitation!

We are going to invite a family to be baptized!  We found them last week.  They let us in and we taught a little about the Book of Mormon.  We're going back and we're going to teach the Doctrine of Christ using 3 Nephi 27.  They're a cute family and when we taught them last, they really felt the Spirit.  We hope and pray for the best.

The Book of Mormon is a Conversion Tool!

This week was great!  We found a new investigator.  We met a member of his family outside one day as he was leaving for work.  He told us we could come back so we did and we started talking to a young man around our age.  He didn't seem interested at first.  However, we somehow (completely led by the Spirit) ended up on the topic of the Book of Mormon.  He was really interested in that.  By the time we left, we gave him a Book of Mormon, committed him to read the Introduction, invited him to be baptized, and set a return appointment.  We came back a couple days later and he had read the Intro, the testimonies, and was into First Nephi.  He was super excited about the brass plates and Joseph Smith.  We had planned to invite him to church, but he pretty much invited himself!  He still doesn't have a Baptismal Date.  Only time will tell!

Daily Scripture Study

We had a lesson last Sunday about the importance of daily scripture study. The sister who taught Relief Society said that if we read the Book of Mormon every day, everything else in our lives will fall into place. I have seen this in the short time I've been out in my mission. I have begun reading the Book of Mormon regularly (I know, I've always been bad with scripture study!). It's helped me maintain a clear perspective of the purpose of missionary work which has helped me maintain vision and faith every day.

The Book of Mormon

This month, as a mission, we have been studying the importance of the Book of Mormon in conversion. In my own limited experience in the mission field, I can tell you that the Book of Mormon has been the most effective tool in bringing investigators to baptism. With one of our recent baptismal candidates, we got him reading the Book of Mormon within the first week. This coupled with excellent MEMBER missionary work led to him being baptized. One of our investigators who we are working with now has begun reading it, and we can see how his heart has been softened just in the short time we've been meeting with him. He told us that he has heard a lot of negative comments about the Book of Mormon in his life. But now that he's started reading it, he can see that much of the rumors regarding it were, in his words, "only speculation." When investigators gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, everything else falls into place.