Dear Family!
First off, so I don't ruin the miracles later, our apartment is invested with bed bugs...they are nasty little creatures. Theyve been in this apartment for months, but no one ever tried to get rid of them so finally during weekly planning as I was itching and covered with bed bug bites, we came to the consensus that we needed to get rid of these bugs! So we got the steamer and tore our room apart and steamed everything, the beds, the baseboard, the carpet, the ceiling, etc. We lost track of how many we killed. That night, the remaining bed bugs were out for revenge and we got bit even more! But we killed some more and since then we've been sleeping peacefully. I have never taken the phrase "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" so seriously. Now on to the miracles:)
What a week! It was amazing! On Wednesday night we were looking at our KI's and they were very far below standard and we decided that we needed to change that and have more faith in this area, we went out the rest of the week and worked with faith and diligence.
By Sunday we were still struggling to find elect people though, but we both kept the faith and believed that we would still find the elect. We implemented using the "if, then" statements and made one up yesterday evening right before harvesting. We said "If we knock every door and talk to everyone we see and testify boldly of Christ and don't back down so easy, then we will find someone who is ready to receive us." We brought that to God in prayer and both felt good so we started knocking.
At first no one was answering but we OYM'ed this lady and she accepted to be baptized, but she lives out of our area so we had to pass her. We continue knocking for about an hour with no success, but our faith was still high. We get to the end of the street and there are 3 doors left, I feel like knocking the first and the last because it looked like people were home, but then the thought crossed my mind, "what if the people we are looking for live in that middle house and we just passed them by?" We hastily went and knocked on the middle house and a young couple answered the door and were very happy to have us pray with them. We later found out that they have been to our church 5-6 times and that they are best friends with a member. I testify that God sent us to them to invite them to follow His Son, and I invited them to be baptized and they said, "yes, we would love to be baptized!" It was an amazing miracle and it also reconfirmed my testimony in listening to the Spirit.
I have just one more amazing miracle that occurred Sunday night as well. We had an hour left in the day and we felt like trying this couple names Jen and Robert. Robert had met the missionaries 3 months ago, but had never been able to have a lesson with us. We just found Jen on Friday because Elder D'Addabbo felt prompted to try Robert even though it had been about a month since their last contact, and we shared a prayer with her and she had desires to be baptized as well. We went over last night randomly and they were both home! We were able to get to know them and share the message of the Restoration. After explaining the Book of Mormon, Robert shared a story that he just remembered of when he was 13 his friend invited him to his house to listen to the Elders share a message. He went home that night and told his mom that he wanted to be a Mormon, but his mom is a devote Roman Catholic, so nothing was done. But he still remembered that night and how the Elders talked about the Book of Mormon. He then exclaimed to us, "If I had known that you worked through the Book of Mormon, I would have let you in years ago!" We go on to testify that God had sent us there and we shared the many experiences that kept bringing us back even though we never got to share a message. The Spirit was so strong it was tangible, I then testified to them that "God sent us to find you and to prepare you to live with Him again. That is why we are here, we are here to prepare you for baptism so you can live with Him forever!" I then invited them to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized, I felt confident that Robert would agree, even though he's Catholic, but I was unsure for Jen since she hadn't participated too much during the lesson, but as I invited them Jen exclaimed, "Absolutely!" Robert then broke into tears and said "yes, yes I want to be baptized!" This is why I love missionary work so much, to be able to witness first hand the power of God working amongst His children. This experience recharged me and reminded me why I am here and what my purpose is as a missionary. This was a miracle Sunday indeed!
I also studied about the Atonement in the Book of Mormon and through modern day prophets. I studied a talk my favorite sister missionary serving in Philly (aka sister bailey) sent me titled, "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" by Elder Bednar. It really opened my eyes to the Atonement and helped me learn so much more of what the Atonement is and how everyone, whether sinner or saint, can use it. Everyone should look it up! But I'll end here since my email is long:)
I love you guys and hope you have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Spencer Bailey
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