Wow, this past week was amazing! Elder Woodard and I have been working on being the best missionaries we can be by applying the things we have been learning. The Lord has blessed us wonderfully for it. We had been praying for many days to find a family and we worked diligently to find one. Just the other night the Creole elders knocked into a family. It turns out I had taught one of the sons 3 months ago! The mom saw the Book of Mormon lying around and became really interested. She desired for the whole family to be baptized! Elder Woodard and I have gone back 3 times now with our recent convert and they are amazing and so elect! They want to be baptized so bad! We had them set for this weekend but they missed the ordinance of the Sacrament, so we had to move them one more week to the 19th, but that was a miracle in and of itself, because some of the family wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but they will come this week. So now the whole family will be baptized on the 19th!! It is a miracle!
Elder Woodard was inspired to start working with part member families this past week. We met with one family, son (member) and mother (non-member), and we brought with us a member. He started talking to the mom about Joseph Smith and she became really interested. We left a blessing on the home and she loved the feeling that she felt. We left a Restoration DVD and scheduled a return appt. We came back the following day and she had tried to watch the DVD but it didn't work, so we watched it with her. The whole time she kept saying, "wow, I am in awe right now!" the part that touched her most was the fact that Heavenly Father himself appeared unto Joseph. She realized the significance of this experience because Heavenly Father has only shown himself to a few of His children. This was the chance to invite her to be baptized, but we didn't know how to go about asking her because we were afraid to offend her or her son by asking. Thankfully the Spirit was super strong in that lesson and she broke the silence by asking, "Are you trying to ask me if I'll join this Mormon faith?" We replied, "well. . . yes, yes that is what we are trying to ask." She accepted and said that the Mormons believe the same stuff that she believes. Her son invited her to be baptized and she agreed full-heartedly!! She will be baptized on the 19th as well!! Working with part-member families truly does work!
This past week was also New Years. And that means that people get drunk and drive like maniacs. So President said we had to come home at 8 in order to stay alive and not be a statistic of those killed my drunk drivers. There's not a whole lot to do inside missionary apartments, so after we did nightly planning and accounted and wrote in journals etc., we didn't know what to. Then we remembered that there was one thing we could do... go race R/C cars that Brother Oaks sent me for Christmas! (thanks again!) So we went out to the parking lot and raced these cars until we had to go back in again and go to bed at 10:30. So that was my New Year's eve party:)
This week I was studying Alma 36 and 26 as well as the Atonement and repentance. Alma 36 is AMAZING and I learned so much from reading it. Alma 26 is AMAZING as well. Ammon is a boss! I also studied a packet called "Becoming a Sacred Missionary" and I have been applying the things from that packet into my life to become a Sacred Missionary. I have seen a change in myself and in my companionship and in the success in the area, all from studying this packet and applying the things that I've learned into my daily life.
Well that's all I have time for today, I love you guys and keep you in my prayers! also a shout out to Matt Pettit who recieved his call to the wonderful South Korea!!
Love ya!
Elder Spencer Bailey
I LOVE reading Elder Spencer's letters!
ReplyDelete