April 25, 2011

Hello Everyone!!!

This past week went very very well!! In our zone altogether we had two baptisms! One of them was a big miracle, she is a lady who is 65 and has been going to church her whole life, she has not been baptized because she has an extreme fear of water, because when she was young she almost drowned. This past week the elders and the ward helped her to finally make the decision to be baptized and within 3 days were able to practice and prepare to help her be baptized and she was! We started out this week by going on a three day exchange with a companionship in our zone. I worked in our area with Elder Toland, he is a great elder. We worked pretty hard and had one day of back to back lessons, probably one the most busiest days of my mission so far! Every hour of our day had a lesson and dinner was a backup plan ;) (that tends to happen a lot). On my mission there have been a few times when I have a very special spiritual feeling or experience and one happened this week. We were talking to a lot of people that were outside in this particular neighborhood, and while we were walking around a man came up to us and said "How much do you know about the Mormons?" and it turns out he was a member. But he referred us to his less-active son who lives in the complex we were at. We went and visited the son and he invited us in, we talked to him for a bit and then set up a time to meet with him again. The next night we went back and taught him and his non-member girlfriend. During the lesson I had a strong feeling that I know him and I remembered him. Something I can't quite describe but it was very special to me. I am excited to help him get back on his feet in the Gospel again. This week was a lot of just plain hard work and talking to everyone and I have seen so many blessings come our way. I can't believe my year mark is in three days! I was reading a talk this week by Elder Marion D. Hanks and it was about finding joy through Christ. He focused on something I haven't really put much thought into before. But he said "We all know we need God. We love him and we absolutely rely on him." Then he said "But I find that rarely do we consider that God needs us. Each and everyone of us." I know that we really are all children of God and because of that, everything we do in this life has an impact on others. We should never think less of who we are. God is on our side and we can always come off conqueror! I love this work, and I love all of you! I hope all is going well! Until next week!