Miracle Baptism!

So this week, we had a baptism!   We had been working with an investigator for quite some time (since before I got out here!).  He did not want to be baptized until he was in college (a good year and a half away) and no matter what we did or sad, he would not change his mind.

Then, our district leader suggested we let him interview him The interview lasted over an hour, and he felt the Spirit and decided he wanted to be baptized   :D :D :D yay!

On Sunday, he texted us and told us he was too tired to go to church.  We told him that if he wanted to be baptized that day, he'd have to.   So he agreed willingly without much persistence on our part.  He came to church, all went smoothly. We saw him right before he left , and he's still excited and ready for his baptism at 5:45 so we can start at 6 to be done in time for Seminary Graduation at 7 --- we were on a really tight schedule.

So we go about doing missionary things for the rest of the afternoon.  We arrive back at the church at 5:30..  5:45 rolls around and people are showing up for the baptism.  Everything's great until a member, who was supposed to pick up our baptismal candidate, shows up. Our baptismal candidate is not with him.  The member told us he went to his house, but he was not answering the door or his phone.  We try to get a hold of him, but no luck.

So, we went with the member  to the  house at around 5:55 and start ringing the doorbell - a lot.  Nobody is answering. We kept thinking about the lesson we had had during zone meeting the day before: that if things aren't working out the way they should we have got to "do something about it" and make the miracle happen.

Long story short, we found out his door was unlocked, we found one of his neighbor friends, and his friend walked inside his house to his bedroom and woke him up - he had just been taking a nap.   He came outside still rubbing his eyes, saw us, grabbed his stuff for the baptism, then we all went back to the church arriving at about 6:25.  He quickly changed into his clothes, the baptism started at 6:35, it was over right at 7, and as soon as it was over everyone left to go to seminary graduation.  I was so tired by the end of that!

But, we had a baptism!!!! :)   It was truly a miracle, and - as do all miracles - it required a lot of effort and trust in God on our part.. There was a point where it just seemed like no matter what we did, we ran into a brick wall, but we kept trying, trusting that truly God wanted our investigator to receive the blessings of baptism. We followed the Spirit - and we saw the blessings!

It was truly a great week!

Lessons Learned!

Well, this week was really tiring, but really great!  My companion and I got this crazy idea to set really high goals for ourselves this week - higher than either one of us has hit in our entire missions!  Well, we worked our tails off, and ran into a ton of problems, and although we weren't able to hit all our goals, we learned some valuable lessons in the process.

1) It's hard to plan and balance time, but it's worth it!

Along with setting almost ridiculously high goals for ourselves, we also set goals to visit every one of our members and less-actives this week....and we have a lot.  We have to really be dedicated and focused on our goals because there is a lot of work to do and not very much time to do it.  One of the biggest reasons for not hitting our goals was because we didn't use our time as well as we could have.  But luckily we have this week to redo everything and fix the mistakes we made last week.  We already have appointments set with almost all of our members and we've identified others who are willing to meet with us and keep commitments!  Talk about golden members!

2) We need to simply focus on the basics

Having so many solid appointments in a day means we're planning lessons like crazy.  Sometimes I think that the next day's lessons are supposed to make our members and investigators make huge, leaping strides in their spiritual progress, making daily planning stressful, long, and exhausting!  But one thing I realized this week as I was reading "Act in Doctrine" by Elder David A. Bednar, was that our individual lessons don't need to be life-changing moments, but rather they just need to bring the Spirit.  Lots of subtle, spirit-filled moments go farther than huge, elaborate discourses.

This changed completely the focus of our lessons and the commitments we are having our members and investigators keep.  This week, we created a small Book of Mormon reading chart for all of them.  Every time they read and pray together as a family, they just check off a box for the day.  It only goes for a week, so they won't get tired of it and we promised them all a prize on Sunday if they can read every single day.  The kids are super excited for the challenge!

3) It's more important to love the investigators than to worry if you're doing everything right.

I think this is a lesson I still have yet to learn!  Often, I am so worried about if I am teaching well or if I am doing every little thing possible to get these investigators to baptism that I forget that these are people with their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.  We should really be helping these people get baptized because we love them, not loving them because we want them baptized.  Keeping this in mind has helped us more easily shift our focus to what is most important in this work: bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of our brothers and sisters (Moses 1:39)

Teaching Reflections, Part 2

I think what truly made the lesson great was that we had some amazing members with us that could help explain how the gospel has blessed their family.  What they said was just what the family needed to hear.  We were concentrated on getting them to feel the Spirit.  When you forget about yourself, how well you're teaching, and what others may think of you, and you focus completely on what the investigators need (which is the Gospel) and what the Spirit is telling you, it's amazing what difference it makes!  You truly feel the love God has for His children, and you feel the overwhelming desire to help them find the blessings that come from living the commandments of God.

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 :)

Christmas Happenings!

On Christmas Day, we went and visited many people we know, and talked to people on the street.  We went back to the hotel that overlooks the ocean where we went for our first Thanksgiving dinner.  It was super fun to tell everyone Merry Christmas!  Everyone was so nice and willing to listen to us because of the holiday.  It's the best.  I love Christmas! :D  We shared Luke 2:8-14 with the members and told them that because Christ's coming was good news and a time of great joy, they needed to share the message with everyone.  Surprisingly the spirit of Christmas and missionary work go super hand-in-hand.

My English and Spanish Don't Mix!

Last Sunday, during the Spanish Ward, I had to do English translation during sacrament meeting.  It was super hard, but super fun!  I learned that in my mind, English and Spanish simply don't mix.  I was trying to listen to what was said in Spanish so I could translate it in English, but then I would find myself just repeating what was said in Spanish.  I somehow managed to get the message of the talk across and the English-speaking members understood it and even felt the spirit!  Apparently, I look like the Ward Mission Leader's daughter.  Everyone was telling me that yesterday.  It was so funny!  I don't think we look alike, but apparently everyone else did!

The Spirit Changes Lives!

We were going through our area book the other day and there's a section where we put down all of our potential investigators.  We found our two recent baptismal candidate's names there.  It made me smile to remember how they started out when we first met them.  Both of them have told us that at first they were not super interested in our message, but something during one of our lessons caught their attention.  It happened for each of them at different times, but when they recognized the Spirit we brought, they knew they had to be baptized. It is amazing to see how just one small moment with the Spirit present can change someone's life.

Baptismo!

This week, our absolutely wonderful investigator was baptized!!!!!  We have honestly had the best time teaching her!  It's been so much fun! We were talking last night about the very first day we met her and her sister, who is also scheduled to be baptized.  It was the week the mini missionaries were here and we were contacting a former investigator when she yelled from across the street: "Hey! Are y'all from the church?"  We went over to talk with her.  Little did we know, just 6 weeks later, she'd be baptized!!! We are so happy for her!

 

The baptism was wonderful.  The Spirit was very strong.  She came out smiling and happy and gave us a big hug! :) This was our area's first baptism in a year! 

 

I think the experience teaching her has taught me a lot about faith.  While teaching her, we grew to love her family so much and we were willing to do anything to help her get to baptism because we know it's an important step for salvation.  However, there were several times when we had to rely a lot on faith because as we prayed about how to best help her, the answers we received were completely contrary to how we normally would have proceeded in her teaching.  We had to have a lot of faith and trust in the answers we received through prayer and through our leaders to get her to baptism.  It was well worth it.  The Spirit at her baptism was incredibly strong!

Leadership Conference

This week, we had a three-day leadership conference.  It was very good and I learned soooooo much!  They talked to us about the importance of using scriptures and personal experiences as we teach.  I learned that I need to rely more on the Spirit and teach more to the needs of our investigators.

"CPR" in a Spiritual Sense

We are seeing a lot of success in our area.  We have found great people to teach, and the people we have found have been touched by the Spirit the gospel brings.  As missionaries we leave commitments with everyone.  These commitments are supposed to lead people closer to Christ and help them repent of their sins.  Almost every single one of our commitments has to do with getting them to Church, Praying individually and as a family, and Reading the scriptures (we call it CPR because it sustains spiritual life).  We leave these commitments because we know it will help them progress spiritually.  When they do these three simple things, they feel closer to God and true conversion occurs.

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!

Helping People

My favorite part of this week was visiting with a certain family.  We have met regularly with them almost the entire time I have been in this area.  When we met with them last weekend the lady of the house was stressed and had called us asking us to come.  We went over and listened to her, then shared a scripture with her about how the Holy Ghost comforts us.  It was a very sweet experience and I know she felt the Spirit very strongly.  She came to church and stayed all three hours.  It is so wonderful to be able to help people.