Hey family!
This week has been awesome! We were able to find lots of new
investigators and extend two baptismal dates. The beginning of this week was
pretty slow and all of our appointments fell through, but we kept working hard
and diligently and we were able to see the fruits of our labors! We have been
converting this whole apartment complex!
We gave this guy a book of Mormon, who says that him and his wife are reading it every night, but aren't ready to have missionaries come over yet. We have two less active families who live there, who we are working on reactivating, and we found an investigator there who has a baptismal date for September 20th. We also found a man named John Shepard, who was in the navy. He is a major drug addict, but we brought him over to the church to have a lesson and to share the message of the Restoration. My testimony has been strengthened in that missionaries NEED to have a member at every lesson possible. We went all the way up to Jesus Christ, and we asked him about who Jesus Christ is, and he says he wasn't the son of God, that he was just one of us. Maybe just a prophet. Or a teacher. And we tried explaining it to him, but he just wasn't getting it, until the member bore the most powerful testimony of Jesus Christ as our savior and redeemer that I have ever heard. One second, John was denying Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and thirty seconds later, he was in tears, wanting to know how he can be a better disciple of Jesus Christ. We shared the rest of the lesson, and extended a baptismal date to him, which he accepted. That lesson was one of the most powerful lessons I've been in in a long time.
We gave this guy a book of Mormon, who says that him and his wife are reading it every night, but aren't ready to have missionaries come over yet. We have two less active families who live there, who we are working on reactivating, and we found an investigator there who has a baptismal date for September 20th. We also found a man named John Shepard, who was in the navy. He is a major drug addict, but we brought him over to the church to have a lesson and to share the message of the Restoration. My testimony has been strengthened in that missionaries NEED to have a member at every lesson possible. We went all the way up to Jesus Christ, and we asked him about who Jesus Christ is, and he says he wasn't the son of God, that he was just one of us. Maybe just a prophet. Or a teacher. And we tried explaining it to him, but he just wasn't getting it, until the member bore the most powerful testimony of Jesus Christ as our savior and redeemer that I have ever heard. One second, John was denying Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and thirty seconds later, he was in tears, wanting to know how he can be a better disciple of Jesus Christ. We shared the rest of the lesson, and extended a baptismal date to him, which he accepted. That lesson was one of the most powerful lessons I've been in in a long time.
Today, I went and got a haircut at a members house in my
first ward on the mission, the Binghampton ward! Sister Canada gave me a
haircut. I was really close to the Canada family. Sister Canada has two
granddaughters that live with her, who both just graduated high school. One of
them is preparing to go on a mission. The other one was planning on going to
BYU Idaho. I remember when she applied last year, and she was so excited that
that she got in! These two girls both had awesome testimonies of the restored
gospel. They would have us over EVERY Sunday night for dinner, and we would go
around and share our testimonies. The power and conviction that were in
these two girls voices were incredible. It was amazing to see at their age,
them being so converted to the Gospel. However today, Sister Canada gave me
some pretty sad news. The one that was planning on going to BYU Idaho had just
recently in the past few months made choices that have brought her into
inactivity in the Church. This was hard to hear. The same young woman who had
just a deep understanding and testimony of the Gospel was now breaking the
commandments, un-enrolled in going to BYU, and is hanging out with a bad crowd.
This is breaking Sister Canada's heart. I assured her that she will come back
one day. I told her to have faith and hope. And related to her the story of
Alma the younger, and how his father prayed day and night for him to come to
the truth, which he eventually did after a visitation from the Lord.
It is so easy to fall into inactivity in the church. I would say that it is mostly due to the trial of our faith. I'm convinced that the trial of our faith is usually not one big event that deters us from our conversion, but the trial is continually and consistently doing the things every day that bring us joy and peace, and closer to our Heavenly Father. The Church is all about small and simple things. Life is hard. The gospel is easy. Do the things we need to do every day, and we will be built upon the Rock of Christ, and will be able to stand still when the rains come down and the floods come up. I love you all! And have an awesome week!
It is so easy to fall into inactivity in the church. I would say that it is mostly due to the trial of our faith. I'm convinced that the trial of our faith is usually not one big event that deters us from our conversion, but the trial is continually and consistently doing the things every day that bring us joy and peace, and closer to our Heavenly Father. The Church is all about small and simple things. Life is hard. The gospel is easy. Do the things we need to do every day, and we will be built upon the Rock of Christ, and will be able to stand still when the rains come down and the floods come up. I love you all! And have an awesome week!
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