Monday, January 20, 2014

Filling the Font


January 20, 2014 

Dear Family: 

Well this has been an exciting week! First week with the new comp, had two people get baptized and some extra excitement that happened with that. 

Monday was a sad day. Elder Hammond flew out, Elder Feist moved zones but I got a new comp so that was exciting. We squeezed in a trip to the bowling ally before everyone bailed. Elder Hammond and I went back to pack. Elder Child showed up about 4:30ish I think. Elder Hammond had a lot of stuff he gathered in the last 3 months. He shipped a box to Australia that cost about $150 and loaded his suit cases until they couldn't hold anymore. The office Elders were supposed to show up at 5:30 to come pick him up to take him to L.A.X. I didn't get to go this time because I already had a companion. The office Elders ended up being 50 minutes late and I let them know that I didn't like that. He must have still made it to L.A. on time because I haven't heard otherwise!  
It's too hot for January!

Elder Child eats weird things
 

Tuesday we had District meeting as usual. We met with Mike that day. I have to pray a lot to go into that house with the spirit. They have two dogs that I really would rather not spend any time with. And I love dogs!! We are working with some pretty stubborn people right now. I am beginning to understand more the overwhelming amount of patience Heavenly Father has for his children. How he does it, I don't know. Mike is one of those people. The hand of the Lord is so prominent in his life and after reflection and us trying to show it to him he still refuses to recognize it. We have asked him to pray twice out of our 3 lessons. The amount of times he had prayed in his life to that point he could count on 1 finger, when he lost control of his semi. Both times he prayed he cried. He said he felt enlightened. We try to help him see the correlation with that and the spirit but he just doesn't seem to get it. We will keep working on it though!! We met with Delphina and Melissa everyday this week to help them prepare for their baptism. 
 Elder Child hits 6 months in the Mission and wanted to burn a tie

 
May have been a good idea!

Wednesday was pretty much the same. Delphina and Melissa got interviewed by the zone leaders. Normally that is what the district leaders do, but I can't interview her because I taught her.  

Thursday we had weekly planning. Elder Feist had to come back to go to the doctor, so he stopped here and ate lunch with us. He is in a trio. I feel bad for him, he is pretty much babysitting the two that he is with. That night we ate with Mike's in-laws and he was there so we taught a lesson after. That night I saw something I really didn't like. We have been trying to chase down a family for a long time who's son just turned 9. Now to get baptized he has to be taught by us. I was expecting this to be the easiest baptism I have been involved with. His parents are both returned missionaries (from the same mission which I think is a big part of the problem), who have been home about 10 years and not a lot of that time in activity. It was scary what their son didn't know and I was disgusted with his parents (no I didn't say that, but I think by the surprise we showed I think they know) . He didn't know who God is, and had no idea why it was important. His mom has him scared of being baptized because he has to read pray and go to church because he promised Heavenly Father he would and she straight up told us she was not willing to do those things. She doesn't really support us being there, but won't completely deny us. The husband and wife disagree about him getting baptized. The dad however seemed remorseful. If we have any hope of support it will be from him. It really blindsided me. I had no idea we were going to have to try and talk a return missionary into letting us work with her son. The idea didn't even cross my mind, but once it did there were a couple of scriptures in Doctrine &Covenants I would love to share with her. 

Friday we tried to met with Carlos, but no success.  

Saturday we met with Zack. We have been trying to meet with him all of last week and this week. He is completely different from Mike in every way except for in his stubbornness and the greatness of it. He has had witness after witness showing him what he needs to do. In the time that I have been here I have seen 5 very easily seen miracles all testifying that he needs to be baptized now. He has had the discussions before, we haven't gone over that at all. All we have done is shared scriptures that we have been led to by the spirit. I originally wasn't going to teach him, he is one that gets worked with enough and I didn't feel inclined to. Two weeks before Elder Hammond left Zack kept popping into my head, I brushed it off for a while. After a while I gave in and sought out to meet with him. The last week he was here we finally got to meet with him. I had 3 scriptures in mind. Other than that, no plan. By a miracle I wasn't expecting it turned into one of the most powerful lessons I have ever taught. He felt something that night. He admitted it to me. He knew what I was saying was directly from God. He committed to being baptized on a specific date. After 8 years of missionaries in and out of his life he felt something and committed, that is what he told me. Unfortunately the spirit left with us and he didn't feel the same the next day. He got invited to church by a member so his plans were all ready to go. They said the same thing at church. A friend brought him a talk by President Uchtdorf that talked about when the best time was to plant a tree. Another miracle it stayed on the table until I saw it. The next huge one was that I remembered what it said. I pointed out the other witnesses he had received that he was choosing to not accept. We had another lesson. We showed him the hand of Heavenly Father in his life. We testified our hearts out. We showed him scriptures. Then scriptures that showed him what would happen if he chose not to act upon this message. Sadly he still isn't giving in, now I am praying like Alma did for his son.   
Checking the Font Depth

The Baptism of Melissa and Delphina

 

Sunday was stake conference. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake. President Eyring, Elder Anderson, The General Relief Society President, and a member of the 70 spoke. They were all wonderful talks. All about missionary work. I think some of the members think that they will eventually stop getting hammered with the hastening of missionary work. I am going to start telling people that it will never stop until everyone starts to do it and we are ready to receive more responsibility.  That night was Delphina and Melissa's baptism. It is great to see the changes they have made in their lives. Elder Child and I went early to fill the font. There were 4 baptismal services that day so I knew there was water in it. But we wanted more!! So I changed and got in. I plugged the overflow drain so we could fill it as high as possible. It was good, but then the ward mission leader came behind me and put more in. Oh well! I wasn't going to try and get rid of just some of it and lose too much. Melissa and Delphina both asked me to baptize them. I try not to do that, I really want members to do it, but I always took ladies over to be her fellowship and they can't baptize em! Melissa went first and when she got in the water was right at the top of the stairs. When she went under it ran over into the walkways, no big deal at all. When we got Delphina in (which was scary because she can't really walk) and then 4 Elders, water was running into the relief society room haha. Nobody is going to forget me!! Somebody went and grabbed a shop vac and started on it right after the service. I had Sister Tucker and Young from my district give a 5 to 10 minute restoration lesson for their family that was there. Delphina and Melissa told us about the overwhelmingly good feelings they had and the spirit they felt. The ZL's hung out in the changing room. They forgot extra white shirts haha. I hope this is a better letter and is a good one. I had extra time because I didn't have to take other Elders to the library so P-day was a lot different today. Well love you all!! Bye!!
I'm watching you.  (This is one of the dogs that live here in our home share)

P Day at the house we live in.