Hello again everyone! I'm e-mailing today because we went to the temple this morning, so today is our preperation day. It was great! I love the temple so much. We are so blessed to have the gospel!
Oh dear, I haven't been giving you updates on D. She is so amazing! She hasn't missed a week of church since we met her (the first or second week of March), she's read the Book of Mormon every day (she's half-way through Alma) and she prays every day too. Last week she gave us her cigarrettes with a note that said, "I'm pleased to tell you that I smoked my last cigarrette today and that I will never smoke one again. Thank you so much for helping me kick this unhealthy habit." She used to smoke a pack a week before she met us. She was able to cut back a ton, and that last cigarrette tasted absolutely awful to her. She's also stopped drinking and made lots of other great changes in her life. And yet she would still never commit to a baptismal date. She never really felt ready and she never felt like she'd received an actual answer as to whether or not the Book of Mormon is true (even though she can recognize the Spirit and feels it all the time when she reads and goes to church). So we've been praying and praying that she'd receive that Spiritual witness she's looking for and stop putting off the blessings of baptism that she's so ready for.
Well, after zone conference on Friday my companions and I (Elder Peacock, Elder Vera, and Elder Hernandez) each met briefly with President. In the course of his talking with Elder Peacock he discovered that we didn't have a model home (that's the mission's standard of cleanliness for our apartments). He was not very happy as the last time he'd visited our apartment he'd asked us to make sure we did (we're usually pretty close). He'd also asked that we speak Spanish as much as possible to each other, but for Elder Vera's benefit, because he's learning English, we were to speak English in the apartment with him. Well, all of us had been speaking a whole lot of English. So we got chastised by him (we'd already been chastised by the Spirit for those things during the conference) and were determined to do better. And we have been! And as they say, "Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles." So, I come to yesterday's miracle.
I was on exchanges with Elder Peacock in Winton (Elder Vera was here in Atwater with Elder Hernandez). On our way back to the apartment, we got a text from the other elders. They'd forwarded a text that just said, "I'm getting baptized." We were confused. Elder Peacock asked, "Who would text you in English and be dramatic like that?"
"D, maybe?"
"Oh, my gosh! What if it's D! Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
We hurried in to the apartment, and sure enough, it was D! Elder Hernandez and I called her after we were done planning and asked her what had changed. She said, "There are 642 pages in the Book of Mormon (the Spanish verison) and I got to page 321 today. That's half-way through! And I thought, 'Wow, I've come so far in less than two months!' And I got this feeling. It's hard to describe. And suddenly I thought about baptism. I wasn't even reading about baptism! But for some reason I thought of it, and it felt right. So I'm super nervous, but I want to do it."
Woohoo!!!! I'm so excited for her!! Her date is May 18th. We asked if she wanted to get baptized earlier (she's completely ready) but she said, "No, no, no, no. no! The 18th is fine!" Yeah! And I really do believe that a part of the reason she finally receieved her answer was because my companions and I were trying to be exactly obedient this week.
We also have a "mana" baptism this weekend, a man named J. He kind of lives in the middle of nowhere and so Elders from Turlock (the city just north of us) taught him pretty much everything. On top of that, the member from that branch who introduced him to the gospel has been reading the Book of Mormon with him every day on the phone and bringing him to church every week. She's amazing! She's pretty much led him herself to the baptismal font. It turns out that he lives in our boundaries, so we get to baptize him, even though we've only taught him twice and one of those times was just to review the baptismal interview questions with him. This should be a good month! Our inspired area goal is 5 baptisms. We have two solid ones right now, and I'm sure we can get three more if we work hard and be exactly obedient! Pray for us and our investigators!
Sounds like things are going well back home! I love you all! Thanks for your love and support!
Love,
Elder Lofthouse
No comments:
Post a Comment