Wow! Where to begin! This past week has been pretty
amazing!!!! Before I get into all that, I have to apologize because it has been
a few weeks since I have written my blog. I had a great Christmas and
especially the opportunity to see my wonderful family over skype and get to
talk with them. There is nothing that compares to sharing what matters most with
those who matter most. This past Saturday we had the goal to get all 100
Recent Converts to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead, for their own family
names, and we had a great turnout. We accomplished 96 of the 100 and so just need 4
more in before the beginning of January to accomplish it. We have Recent
Converts going today and tomorrow to get it done. We had a bit of a problem
getting everything figured out for Jose Rosas because we weren't able to log
into his account on Familysearch.org because his Birthday info., we later found
out, got input wrong. All is well now. For those of you who don't know what
Familysearch is, it is a website we can go to in order to trace back our genealogy and see
who we are related to. It is pretty cool. We got Jose's parents names printed
out and he was able to be baptized and confirmed for his father. Jose's good
friend, Hna Paez, was baptized and confirmed for his mother. He told me right before
I baptized him for his father that he felt the Spirit overwhelm him and he got teary
eyed. He had a great experience and it sure was something to see so many
recent converts there!
This last week we have had some great success in the
work. We picked up Orlando, Hernan, Ariselia and Luis as new investigators and
got a return appointment with this lady named Michelle. The stories behind
these people are as follows.
Michelle: We had gotten a referral for someone
named Christian and so we went to the address and rang the bell. A man poked his
head out the window and asked us who we were and want we wanted. We told him
who we were looking for and he told us that person didn't live there. We then
asked if he would be interested in hearing our message and he said no. After
that I looked at the door on the left and for some reason just felt good about
knocking on it and so I went and knocked. This kid answered the door, he then
got his mother who was a very friendly lady. She is a born again Christian and
had the Light of Christ beaming from her eyes. It was amazing! We had a great
conversation and a return appointment to get to know her more and to hear her
story. It was really cool to see how it all worked out via the promptings of the Spirit putting words in my mouth in the
very moment I needed them.
Ariselia & Luis: Ariselia was a referral from
the Portuguese Elders that we have tried to contact for over 8 weeks and have
had no luck. We got in touch with her yesterday before church and came back
later that night. She had a friend over named Luis and so we got to know them
and shared a message. She told us how out of all the religions there is just
"something peaceful and different about us as Mormons" and so we helped
them see our purpose and promised them they can find out what we have for
themselves. They were intrigued and loved it all. Luis is a really cool guy and
actually is blind and has fake eyes that they put in! They look so real! He is
a mechanic and is very talented as well to where a lot of people would rather
have him work on their car than any others. He loved the message as well and so we
got his info and will go back and meet with him.
Orlando: He is a new investigator
we got while we were at Camila and Marta's house Christmas Eve cooking for
them. He had some great questions and so we started to talk to him a little bit
more and he is very interested in meeting with us again. We have to pass him
off to the Providence missionaries though since he is not in our area. He is
awesome!
Hernana: He is a former investigator that a member referred to us. He is
from Columbia and is a really cool guy. He has a ton of questions about the
Book of Mormon and let us know that before he wanted to get baptized. He has some
habits he doesn't want to give up just yet, but that is ok because in time we
are hoping he will have a greater desire to follow the Savior and then those things
will become history.
We have been seeing miracles lately here in Central Falls. The
amazing thing is that after I talked about sacrificing things to show the
Savior how much we love him, I had this great desire to leave this area with as
many new investigators as possible and getting the members more involved in the work. These
two things were what I told Him I wanted to make happen, but that I would need His
help to do it, since so far the investigators we had weren't really
progressing. As I have sought ways to continually put my will at the altar and
offer it up to the Savior, daily, I have started to see even more miracles and
feel the wonderful guidance of the Holy Ghost even more, for which I am so grateful.
I know that the Lord has been preparing his children to receive this wonderful
gospel message & that no matter where we are we can find those
individuals as we show Him that He can trust us and that we truly do care to find
them. As we pour our hearts out to him in prayer, pleading for our spiritual eyes
to be opened, to see the opportunities in our paths daily, He will guide us to
where we need to go.
I am so grateful for the wonderful lessons He has taught
me while on my mission. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the
World, that He lives and is guiding His work in these days. I know that as we
seek to rely on Him for ALL things, we can be the means of doing much good in this
generation. It is my prayer that all reading this will seek to do just these
things because I know and can promise you that whatever it is you stand in need
of most, the Lord will bless you. In the name of Jesus Christ,
amen.
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