Hey Yall!
This week again has been full of miracle after miracle. Its been so good! I hope that everyone was able to have a good Thanksgiving! Here its been the regular weather so really nothing to much has changed. A lot of people were gone, out of town for the holiday. But none the less the work of the Lord moves on. I do want to let everyone know that our mission as well as a lot of other missions around the world are involved in the "He is the Gift" initiative. We have cards that we are passing out, and if you havent seen the video, I highly recommend you go to christmas.mormon.org and watch it and encourage everyone to go there. The church is doing a lot for this and wants it to be a big hit! So tell everyone you know about it! Elder Roseman and I, pretty sure we could be models or something;)
Us, with the ZL's and Joe. Ill just get strait into it. On Monday we were able to go up to Montgomery to go bowling with our zone and the Montgomery North Zone! It was so much fun. On Tuesday, we went around to some of our investigators and taught them, trying to help them progress farther and get to church. We were able to see Brittany. We helped her with some things around the house. Then we taught her some more. She was out of town since it was the holidays and wasn't able to make it to church, but is planning on coming. Then we were able to see Authur Dumas. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and some of it was new to him, but he loved it, which is kind of unusual because most of the time I teach it, everyone gets defensive about the 3 kingdoms, but he accepted and loved the idea of it. We were able to meet his fiance for a split sec. Then on Friday we went back and I was on exchanges with Elder Holliday, we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the 5 steps of happiness and what we should be doing here on earth. we asked him what it meant to him to repent. He said, "Well, you have to recognize that your doing wrong, then pray and ask forgiveness for it from the Lord, then stop doing it." That shocked us, with how much he actually knew. Elder Holliday then taught him about baptism and the Holy Ghost. I could feel the spirit so strongly, and I testified of what Elder Holliday had just shared, then told Authur that he was feeling the Spirit right then! He had a huge smile and knew that he was. We went on teaching him, and then talked more about his baptism date of Jan 11th and he was excited for it. We then told him that we would love to have his fiance to sit in with the lessons. If we could get her interested in it, then we could help them set a marriage date and get them both baptized, which would be another amazing miracle that God would perform!
A couple other people we saw this week were Dell, we were able to play football with him a little this week and teach him, but nothing to special or new about it, just the regular lessons, we are going back this week to have some bomb lessons and see if he is really gonna wanna do this baptism thing. The other person I wanted to talk about that we saw yesterday is Josiah. Now ive only talked about him a little bit. He is the investigator that Bro Stockman took us to his home and told him to let us teach him. He has been crazy busy with work and other things, but we got to sit down with him. For the past 2 weeks we have been asking him to read a chapter in the BOM and think about a baptism date. Every time he promised to do it, but it wouldnt happen. So this time, we read some scriptures with him in the BOM and showed him how the BOM is scripture like the bible. Then I told him that I admired him for the faith he had to accept to be baptized. He was kind of shocked at that and then I asked him to pick a date right there. He agreed and I gave him a calendar. He looked at it and said, "Well how about the Sunday after Christmas." We then prayed for confirmation. The Spirit was so strong, and you could tell he wanted this to happen. So now we will see what will happen in the coming weeks. He did say that he will talk with his wife and daughter and see if they want to baptized with him on that date as well!:) It topped off a great day!
Now I want to talk about Bobby and what happened with him this week. So last week he wasnt able to come to church because of a seizure. I was wondering what we were gonna do when I thought we could do his baptism the next Sunday right after church. I went over it in my head again and again, cuz it would be really risky to tell everyone about his baptism right after church, then have him not come. Well I asked the Zone Leaders about it and they said they thought it would be good. So we decided to go ahead with it and plan on that. So we went and told him and the Aitken's, the family he lives with, that it would be this upcoming Sunday. Well we were able to go on Wednesday and do his interview which went well, we set up a program for the baptism. We asked about his smoking and how that was coming. He said he was doing better with it. I then asked him to see if he could give it up and not smoke anymore. He said he would give it a try. Then went back on Friday. We taught him about the Laws and Ordinances which includes the priesthood and temple work. Then went back on Saturday and help them with some service and talked more about what was gonna happen at his baptism, we asked about how his smoking was. He said that he had the desire to smoke every now and then but didnt!! Wow how cool!!
So then Sunday came. He got to church a little late, half way through sacrament meeting, with the Aitkens, but they were able to be there for the rest of it, he has also been to church several times before us. The coolest thing though, was how excited he was. Now Bobby isnt one to get excited or even talk haha he is super quite and to himself. Well all during the baptism and after he was smiling and his countenance changed. The baptism went great, it was Elder Roseman's first and was so nervous but I helped him through it all and he did great! I was so neat to watch Bobby go under the water, everything was in slow motion like in the video's of baptism and when he came back up you could see a physical change. We also were able to confirm him after the baptism with everyone in the branch already there. This was the first baptism that the missionaries have had here in about 4 or 5 years. They had one 2 years ago, but the family that the man lived with did everything then told the missionaries to baptism him haha. After the baptism I talked with him and asked how he felt. He said, "I feel really good. Thank you so much for all you have done and for making this happen." He has been waiting a long time for it. Then I said, "Your a member now." "Ya. Now I gotta start coming more." He replied! That was another miracle. For him to realize how important church was and to say that he needs to come more! So we are gonna get him the priesthood and have him bless the Sacrament every week. Also his dad passed away a couple years ago, so we are gonna work with him to get him to the temple for recent convert baptisms in Dec! The whole week was just a week of miracles that came from a small little thought of, "Have Bobby's baptism on Sunday." Its amazing how revelation works and how the Lord will make things happen in his timing. This transfer as I have been trying to work harder then ever, I have been really aware of the Lord's work here and everything that He has been doing, its been amazing to watch all the tender mercies that the Lord has provided us this transfer!
I love this time of year. Its a time to reflect on the birth, life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. People are kinda crazy around this time, but most people are thinking about others and how they can be helped. Let us remember what the Lord has done for us and then in return give back to him in the means of serving His children. I love yall so much! Remember this week that yall have beautiful smiles and that as you are happy, you can share that magical gift with others! Have a great week! Look for the Lord and His tender mercies this week, youll be blown away.
Love Elder Hall:)
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