Dear Family,
Wow! This week has been a
week of miracles that's for sure! From the beginning of the week,
everything just seemed like it came flying towards us. We had more
investigator referrals and less active referrals than I think I've
gotten in the past few months. They kept coming in so fast that we had
to keep a running list just to keep them all straight. We had less
active members that we had never met before call us because they wanted
us to go by and visit them, and then when we get there they brought us a
friend they wanted us to teach. And even better, the friend accepted a
baptismal date! That happened twice this last week!
One of the referrals that we got was for a young man
named John. We found out that the member had taken him to church the
past two weeks in Robstown and had really enjoyed it. We met with him,
taught him the Doctrine of Christ and invited him to be baptized, which
he readily accepted. The dad of his friend who had referred him was
there at the lesson as well. His name is Brother Flores. He was
baptized as a youth into the church as well and was testifying during the whole lesson about how much it had helped him. When John accepted the
baptismal date, Brother Flores stood up from his chair and bore him his
testimony on the restoration. It was pretty intense seeing him stand up
and say, "I know that this is the only true church on the face of the
earth, and I'm so excited for you and the decision you've made to
prepare yourself to become a part of it. When I was baptized it was the
best decision of my life, I don't know where I'd be without it, and I
know it'll be the best decision of your life as well. I'll be praying
for you." That's probably the best member support/member testimony I've
heard in my whole mission. Too bad he lives in Robstown, haha. We've
taught John three times this past week. Then he came to a baptismal service
on Saturday and then church on Sunday. And he's up to chapter five of First Nephi in the Book of Mormon as he's been reading with his member
friends.
We've been working really hard here in this area,
and you can see the results of it. The other elders had their miracle
baptism on Saturday, which turned out to be a really good experience.
Two investigators came as well as a number of less actives. The girl is
pretty young, but has a really strong testimony. Her parents come to
church with her, but have to get a divorce before they can get
baptized. The girl wanted to go to the temple to do baptisms with the
youth this weekend, so she decided to do the baptism on her own.
I just finished the Book of Mormon again as well!
This time was special though because I read every chapter at least twice
(although most ended up like 3 or 4 times) before I moved onto the next one.
So, it's taken me a while because of that. I feel like everything
I've learned is very much worth the time and effort. We were given time
to speak in the Spanish branch on Sunday and I gave a talk on
treasuring up the teachings of the Book of Mormon. It's such an amazing
book, and more importantly, it's true! In my talk I read a number of
verses from the Book of Mormon where the book describes it's own
purpose. I think my favorite one is probably Ether 8:26. It sounds
more intense in Spanish than it does in English, but it's still good.
In English it says, "So that evil may be done away..." but in Spanish it
says, more or less, "So that evil may be destroyed..." which just
sounds a little more intense to me. It's the foundation of the
testimony of the restoration and I know it's true. (That's the
first time I've underlined anything in a email in a long time, so that
means it's big.) I hope we can all appreciate the sacrifices of the
prophets, ancient and modern, by undertaking a more serious study of the
book.
Hopefully, Mom, your friend can be ready soon to act, and
not be acted upon. At some point she does have to be ready to support
herself. Others can always do more, but when we fall short, ultimately
it always comes down to us and it's our personal accountability.
I hope everyone has a great week, but I'm out of time to write. Keep looking for the miracles! They come!
Love you! <---you remember what the underline means....
