Hello mi familia, We had a great week here in Smithfield! We had a huge miracle happen this past week and we had another experience that has contributed to my testimony. I love sharing the Gospel so much. I would say that one of the biggest things I have learned on my mission through my own experiences as well as others is that when we live the gospel to its fullest, then we begin to see all of His blessings. As a result, our testimony grows.
All of us have a testimony, whether great or small. We all are at different points on the testimony spectrum. When we strive to strengthen our testimony through scripture study, prayer and church study, our testimony strengths; however, if we lack on doing those simple things, our testimony weakens. Those small things are crucial to our testimony.
Onward to the fun stuff. I will start with the biggest miracle of this past week.Two weeks ago, Elder Ankney and I received a call from one of the elders covering the northern part of Smithfield and he asked us that if we could go with his companion to teach an eternigator (an eternigator is an investigator that has been investigating the church for many years) named John. This happened because he had to go interview someone for baptism. We reluctantly agreed because we were super busy at that point. We had a lot of stuff that needed to get done that night.
We met up and went to the lesson. A half hour into the lesson, I had this strange prompting that I need to invite this person to be baptized. I shrugged it off because he was an eternigator and was invited numerous times. A couple minutes passed by, the prompting came again but stronger. I decided to just follow it. I invited John to be baptized on May 30th and he flat out said no. I was taken back and stunned for a second. My companion took over and I got to thinking, "Why did I ever get that prompting if he was going to say no? ... Oh, well. I did what I did. He has his agency and I have mine."
We left the lesson and a week passes by. I was sitting in one of my favorite less actives' house (The reason why she was my favorite less active is that she is super chill and fun to talk to and teach!). She is super receptive and just has a hard time going to church. I felt a buzz in my pocket so I pulled the phone secretively and saw the text. The text informed that John is now preparing to be baptized on the 16th of May and then, they thanked me. I was so confused and happy at the same time. I just put the phone back in my pocket with a smile on my face despite being confused.
The next morning, Elder Ankney and I went to the gym and started doing our workouts, the Smithfield North Elders walked into the gym and we got the whole story of what happened. The next time they went to John's house, they started with a prayer and John spoke right away. He told them that the deaf elder (me) dropped the baptism bomb on him and he was a little pissed at the deaf elder. But during the week, he was thinking about it a lot and ultimately decided to pray about it. God answered his prayer for the first time and is now wanting to be baptized. He chose a date two weeks earlier than when I originally invited him for.
This was a great testimony-builder experience to me because the Lord knows His sheep. He prompts us with promptings that are confusing to us at first. But if we follow them, we will see why we received it later on. What a great experience to have on my mission. I know that I needed to be there at that day, at that moment so I can invite John to be baptized. What a wonderful experience that I was able to experience.
Another great thing that happened this past week was the lesson with Shy. She is doing so awesome. She is heading to Hawaii for the next couple months and gets back in town in the end of June. Towards the end of the lesson, we asked her if she is planning on going to church in Hawaii, she told us that Brady (her boyfriend) and her already looked up the information for the ward and the church is right next to her grandma's house. She had no idea. She is a little nervous but we talked about how that it is important to keep attending church. It is a good thing that Brady is heading over there in a month to help Shy talk to her parents about her baptism. Brady and Shy are planning on teaching Shy's family about the gospel. What an amazing thing! :)
Elder Ankney and I found a couple new people to start teaching this THURSDAY! :) One of them is Uriel. He has been in Utah for 10 years and has never met with the missionaries in the past. He is a Catholic and wants to find a new church to start going to. He has a desire to follow Jesus Christ and he told us all that in the door contact. We told him that the best church is right next to him (the LDS church is literally right next to him) and that we would love to help him learn more about the church and help him follow Jesus Christ. He was all over that! :D I am so excited to start teaching him this Thursday.
The second one is Audi. One of the Smithfield North elders found him and referred him to us. We are going to start meeting with him this Thursday as well. Elder Ankney and I are sooo pumped for this lesson! :D
Also, another big thing happened today. Do y'all remember Aaron Marez? The eternigator that I was teaching when I was covering the Logan Central Stake. I saw his mother-in-law in Wal-Mart today and we started talking. She told me that Aaron is preparing to be baptized in the next couple months and that he just got interviewed by someone in the Mission Presidency and is now waiting for approval by the First Presidency to be baptized! It was GREAT news to hear!!
The majority of our less-actives are doing well. Some of them are going to church and some of them are still struggling with them.
So, as you may know by now, everything in Smithfield is going WONDERFUL! I am loving my time here and as a missionary. I love seeing God's miracles in my life and on my mission. I know that God lives and that He loves us, no matter what. We are His children and that when we do the things that He asks us to do, we will come back and live in His presence forever. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He has atoned for our sins and with His help, we can do it.
I love you all so much and talk to you on Sunday. Have fun with the heat over in Saudi Arabia! :) Love, Elder McGrath
No comments:
Post a Comment