CIAO!
This week has been
super amazing - God just keeps continuing to bless us abundantly! Here's
an update on the people that are making progress:
Nelson, Alfonso,
and Alba (the south Americans that we found from the very first door we knocked
on) are doing fantastically! They came to church last Sunday, and, even
though it wasn't super reverent and their were lot of potential hang-ups, they
had a great experience and they all loved it! I don't know if I've ever
prayed so hard that God would consecrate that experience for the welfare of
their souls - and He did! Alfonso accepted a baptismal date! He,
due to his past beliefs and religion, was the slowest to progress, but he's
been touched by the Spirit a lot, and now he is continuing to search for his
answer (he still isn't 100% sure if it's the right thing), but he tells us that
when he knows, he'll be the first to "get in the water!" And,
Nelson, 2 days ago, accepted a baptismal date! He told us how much he
loved church and how now he desires to keep on going every Sunday for the rest
of his life! We're going back tonight, and we're hoping to help Alba
commit herself to be baptized as well so they can all work together to be
prepared!
Joe, the African,
has been doing great as well! He didn't come to church last week, but we
sorted out that problem and he's committed to coming this week. He, also,
said that he's not 100% sure if this church is right. However, he wants
to know which church is true (some JWs have been coming and teaching some
of his friends) and he understands very well that the only way to know is from
God. So, he told us the other day that he had decided to fast for this
knowledge. We'd never even mentioned that to him! He started his
fast yesterday, so we'll hear how it's going later on today!
Victor, the other
African that chased us down to say that he wants to meet with us is doing great
as well! He, too, accepted a baptismal date! He's 19, plays soccer
(he's SUPER good), is really intelligent, and is just a really nice kid.
He understands really well why he needs to be baptized. And, yesterday,
we had a really cool experience with him. We were teaching the plan of
salvation, and, near the end, he stopped us and just started to thank us for
what we were teaching because he could feel inside of him that it was
true. He went on to tell us how the JWs have been coming and teaching him
as well. They, too, tried to explain their interpretation of God's plan,
but he felt that it wasn't true. So, he decided not to listen to them
anymore. He feels the spirit and wants to continue! He says that he
feels like he is "on top of the world" every time he reads the BOM.
Oh, a kind of funny thing he does - when he studies the BOM, he tries to
understand everything that it says, so he studies all of the footnote
references as he goes along. He must have gotten a little confused a
couple days ago because he saw Ne. in the footnotes and thought it was Nehemia,
when it was actually Nephi! But, he's studying every day!
Gianni is doing
fabulously as well! He's basically ready for baptism. We did the
practice baptismal interview with him last sunday and he did it like a
champ! He'll be baptized one week after he and his future wife get
married (so he'll be baptized on the 2nd of June).
And, the really
cool miracle of the week - Pilar! She is doing super good! Her mom
is still very against the church and what Pilar is doing. However, she's
taking it really well. She still studies the BOM every day for a good
amount of time. She has some of the most heartfelt prayers I've ever
heard. Actually, about prayers, she told us yesterday that she feels like
she doesn't know how to pray. She said that "I don't pray like you
guys or like Mario. When I pray, it's as if I were talking to a friend
that is right beside me." Great! You probably praying better
than us! And, yesterday, she committed herself to baptism! We were
teaching and she told us that she was scared to be baptized. At first she
said that she doesn't understand why babies don't need to be baptized.
There's a "battle" going on in her head - one side says that what we
teach is right, but then the other part tells her that what she's believed
forever was right. We talked for a minute, and then we felt to talk about
one of the points in Moroni 8. We asked her "Would it be right that
a baby, who is pure and who can't sin, if they're not baptized, can't return to
live with God?" She thought for a minute, mentioned something else,
and then basically just rerecounted to us what the right doctrine is!
But, that wasn't her real problem. She was still scared. She's
scared that her mom would reject her completely. A lot of her family
already has turned their backs on her, and she fears that this would push them
over the edge. But, fortunately, the Spirit was working - both in us and
in her. Earlier in the lesson (we were teaching the Gospel of Christ),
teaching about faith, we tried to illustrate the faith she has by asking
"If Christ asked you to do something, would you do it?
Why?" She said yes because she would know it's the right thing and
she'd know it would work out. Well, at that point, little did we know
that we'd need that to back us up later with baptism. She told us how she
feels ready for baptism (She's always said in the past that she isn't ready at
all...) and she would do it even today. But, the big problem is her
mom. But, into our brains came the question we asked ealier, "If
Christ asked you to be baptized, would you do it?" She reflected,
and said yes. And then, together, we chose a day for when she'll be
baptized. She wants to be baptized the same day as Gianni (the dad of
Mario, her boyfriend)! The spirit was so strong during the lesson - we
all left supercharged!
We've had some
other cool miracles in finding new investigators. On Wednesday, we were
having a rough day - 3 of our appointments fell through and we weren't finding
anyone that would even listen to us. Then, due to a series of events that
were definitely not coincidental, we found ourselves at the edge of a parking
lot. I felt the desire to pray really hard. So, we stopped and said
a prayer, asking for people to teach. And, sure enough, the next people
we see and talk to are amazing! There was a father, Stefano, who is maybe
30 now. He was sitting outside of his car with his 2 year old son,
Frederico (he's probably the cutest 2 year old I've ever seen - he's a huge
chatterbox - as we were trying to talk to the father, Frederico was going 100
mph talking about whatever would come into his head). A minute later, the
mom pulled up in her car. Apparently the Spirit touched them because they
accepted a return appointment in their home! We went last night to see
them, and it was incredible! Right after we finished saying the opening
prayer, Stefano looked at us and said "I got emotional during the
prayer." What do you feel? "Well, I just feel really
good." He had felt the Spirit! We were only able to be with
them for a few minutes before having to leave, but they committed to reading
the BOM and we'll be back to see them next week to help them understand the
need of the restored gospel in their family!
Also, I had a
scambio this past week. We had set some goals together and we had planned
to do about an hour of strada (street contacting) and then a little over 2
hours of door knocking. In our short time on the street, we were
incredibly blessed! On the street we wanted to find our "replacement"
- a young man, clean shaven, and just looking like a good kid. After
getting out of the car and talking to the first couple people, we looked in the
distance and we "saw him." We both started in the same
direction towards him at the same time! And, sure enough, he was
interested! We had 3 other people we wanted to find (we had planned to
find them at home...). We wanted to find a South American family, a young
Italian couple, and a "mixed" family - part Italian part south
american. And, on the street, in our few minutes, we found the Italian
man from the Italian couple and the south american family. We have return
appointments with both of them! Unfortunately, we didn't ever find that
mixed family...
I've been learning
so much! I got rebuked quite a bit by the Spirit and I've been
discovering more ways that I'm prideful. It's amazing how even the
smallest bit of pride or selfishness can make everything else go
downhill. Actually, I had a really cool experiece from Thursday to
Friday. I was frustrated with myself because I wasn't sure what I didn't
do right, I wasn't feeling the best, and I felt like I wasn't able to show my
love for people or help them out very much. But, line upon line (from my
thursday night prayers to my friday morning prayers to my study friday morning)
I figured out what was wrong! I had to change the way I was praying and
the way I was thinking, and then I figured out exactly where I messed up and
what I could do to change it. At that point, I felt a ton more able to
bless the lives of others. That, in fact, is my goal for myself. I
want to turn outward completely and focus on others and thereby be an
instrument in God's hands in blessing His children. And, this week, more
than ever before, I've felt like I've been able to do that and I feel like I
know how to do it and my mindset and heart desires are a whole lot more in
harmony with what they should be!
Vi voglio tanto
bene!
-Anziano Barnes
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