This week has gone by so fast!!! It has been absolutely wonderful. ...
Blanchard got baptized!!! He's doing really well - his testimony is fantastic. The members love him. ...
The next miracle man is Daniel. He's 19 years old and is from the Ivory coast (a part of Africa). He's a friend of Blanchard (we actually met him one day when he was with Blanchard). So, the miracles. He came to the baptism and was super touched by the spirit! After the baptism, there was a cool activity for the young single adults (a dinner and bowling), so he went with Blanchard to that and was assimilated into a group of a bunch of other LDS young adults! Then, he came to church and loved it! He asked several times if this church is in the Ivory coast and in France because he would like to visit it when he has to leave. That's the only bad news about him - in 1 1/2 weeks he has to go to France where he will live with his family... Anyway, after church, we had a lesson with him and Blanchard. I thought Anziano Heninger had prepared Blanchard really well because he started the lesson out and said that there were two things that he really wanted to tell him (we wanted to teach about praying ofen and studying the scriptures...). It turns out that Blanchard hadn't been prepped by Anziano Heninger, but what he said was absolutely perfect. He taught the restoration lesson in about 5 minutes and then shared his testimony about the restored church and being baptized. At one point it was quite funny - he was talking about how there was a prophet through whom God restored the true church and that there has beeen prophets ever since then. He said that there was even a prophet today, and this prophet is named Thomas. And then, he just continued with his testimony (he forgot Thomas' last name because it is a difficult American name)! I had to hold in a big smile. Anyway, the spirit was really strong. Daniel had begun reading the Book of Mormon and had already gained a testimony of its truth and the reality of the restoration. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted (his baptism is scheduled to be the 19th of November, so he's going to be in France, but we're going to do what we can to prep him and "GEM" the missionaries in France with a guy that's almost ready to be baptized)!
All of the other investigators are still in basically the same situation that they were in last week - they're all still keeping commitments and they're still making progress, but Michelle, Godsent, and Joseph all have something that keeps them back from accepting a baptismal date.
I've learned a lot this past week. ...I have been trying to make sure everything I do - whether it is talking to someone on the street or teaching a lesson - is leading towards helping the people believe and put into practice the doctrines of the gospel (I've especially tried applying this on the street - trying to invite everyone that I meet to do something that will increase their faith in Christ; it's hard but it works). I've also been continuing to try to get more personal with people - both opening me up and not holding back and also trying to get to a deeper and intimate level with the people I teach. I've still got a long way to go, but it helps things be so much better. I think that God is helping me a lot as I strive to lose myself completely and focus all of my thoughts and efforts on others (maybe that's one reason the week has gone by so fast - there's no time for me to think of me!). This has also helped me to grow my love for others even more. ...
Vi voglio bene!
-Anziano Barnes
No comments:
Post a Comment