Quite a lot of people showed up to the baptism! There were
some of J.'s friends, T.'s boyfriend, about 8 other missionaries :P and
President and Sister Preston! There were also quite a few members there, and it
all went SO smoothly! :D I am so happy! I love members so much! Their baptisms were the smoothest baptism I have ever been in and the most spiritual also! I loved it so much. I have to admit something, back at home I wasn’t a big fan of going to baptismal services. I get what has changed though. I have realised that it is NEVER the same. Each time, there is a different child of God coming back to their Father. As I have worked with E. and J. in Barrow, and T. and J. here in Ashton, I have been able to enjoy their services not so much because of the organization that I put into it, but because like Alma, ‘when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy’. I love all 4 of those people so much!
On Sunday, I had the opportunity and privilege to
confirm and give the gift of the Holy Ghost to J. and participate in T.’s
confirmation also. It is such a blessing to have the Priesthood. You never
really understand what the Priesthood is, and its blessings and power, until
you use it. There is nothing like clearing your mind up and letting the Lord
speak through you to give a blessing to one of His children.
J. brought her best friend to the
baptism. She also took her to church the next day! In Gospel Principles, the teacher
started the lesson by asking what miracles everyone had seen this past week and
J.'s friend said that it had been her first time watching a baptism so that was
something very special to her. She also said that J., had told her about how
she felt as she was baptized and that she would like to feel like that also.
Wow! What example J. was to me at that point! She had just been baptized and
she was already standing as a witness of God to her friend. We have arranged to
meet her at J.’s place this Thursday and I am really looking forward to it!
Elder Lesueur and I didn’t stop seeing
miracles at the end of church meetings. They kept happening throughout the day.
Now these are slightly crazy miracles - Aren’t they always – and I truly
believe that what it says in Alma 17:3 is true! When we fast and pray, we can
have the spirit of prophecy and revelation!
After the meetings, as we were still fasting we decided
to do a couple of hours of tracting. We went by a Potential Investigator’s home
who wasn’t actually home. So we spoke to all her neighbours who lived in her
street. Nothing came out of it. So we started making our way back to the flat
while street contacting. At one point, Elder Lesueur said hello to a lady
who was pushing a pram and had two African children with her. As I looked up,
in my mind I had kind of a flashback. Just the day before we had been looking
through the Area Book and some progress records we had found in a drawer. While
I was looking through the Area book, I stopped on a lady called S.’s
record, and Elder Lesueur looked at the Area book and said ‘I am
just reading about S.! Apparently she has two African foster children’. So,
back to Sunday while finding, when Elder Lesueur said hello to this lady, I
immediately knew who she was and did the craziest thing of all. I asked her
‘Have you ever spoken to missionaries before?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Is your name S.?!’
‘Yes…’ ‘No way! S. God wanted us to meet today!’ It was slightly mad! But
God works in mysterious ways.
Then, yesterday, we went to see a family we
hadn’t seen all week. After seeing them, we had made plans to try by a few
PIs and Las that lived in the area. As we were walking to one of the houses, I
saw a street that I felt really good about, but we were already heading
somewhere else. We knocked at the LA’s home and got no reply. So we were about
to head somewhere else but the Spirit kept telling me we should go back and
tract the other street I had felt good about. So we did! When we got to the
street I relied on my Companion’s spiritual sensitivity to decide which side to
tract as I asked him whether we should go for even or odd numbers. He chose
evens and for a while I thought we were wasting our time in that street. In
fact, it wasn’t until the second from last door that anything good happened!
We knocked at the second from last door, and as I was
close to the door I could hear what was going on inside. A lady looked from the
window and started saying things like ‘Those flippin’ Jehova’s Witnesses! What
are they doing knocking on my door on a Sunday?!’ I had to think fast before
she opened the door. When she did, she had her index finger up and was about to
speak when I interrupted her and said ‘We are not the Jehova’s witnesses!’ She
was absolutely confounded and told me to go ahead. We had the most amazing
conversation with her! She is only 21 and still remembered a girl from school
that was a Mormon! She had also heard of “the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints” but had never connected them with Mormons which I thought
was really funny. Even though she started the conversation by saying she didn’t
believe in God, we managed to break the ice and develop a good and solid enough
relationship for her to admit to us that she hoped there was something else
after death. We bore testimony and let her know that she can receive an answer
for herself. We set up an appointment with her for Friday without any struggle
at all, and we really feel she will be amazing!
I love receiving Inspiration from the Lord! Every time I
do, I am thankful that the Lord placed me with Elder Matute who truly helped me
to recognize promptings of the Spirit and to actually follow them. The Gospel
is amazing! I love my mission so much! And more than anything, I love my
companion, my investigators, my recent converts and the members I work with. I
love it."
No comments:
Post a Comment