Positive Attitude and Righteous Desire (Week 23)

Família! Amigos!

Ah, having P-Day on Saturday is slightly annoying. We take people to church on Sunday and I have to wait almost a whole week to tell you. It would be awesome to tell you on Monday! Anyway, I have been waiting to tell you all week that a miracle happened and we had 3 baptisms on Sunday: Josy, Shirley and Erique! :D

In order for these baptisms to happen we followed the example of Amon in Alma 21:23 which says:

"...and it came to pass that he did teach them all things concerning things pertaining to righteousness. And he did exhort them daily, with all diligence; and they gave heed unto his word, and they were zealous for keeping the commandments of God."

Although our teaching group is smaller than most missionaries' as we have less time on the field, we focused on those who we do have and taught them daily, teaching according to their needs and difficulties. The spirit was with us as we studies and treasured up the word of God, with daily personal and companionship study and as we improved our planning. One thing that made all the difference too was our attitude in the work. Office missionaries sometimes get the misconception that because they only get 4 hours a day teaching people it is okay if they don't baptise or take people to church. I decided not to settle for less than God has promised us and so our trio started to get more DESEJO (desire) to bring more of His children to his fold through "teaching repentance and baptising converts" as we learned in the Missionary Broadcast.

Back to Josy, Shirley and Erique! The three were interviewed on Saturday and were all super excited for Sunday. They truly understood the need for baptism in their lives and they knew Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God. As our teaching improved, their obedience to the Lord's commandments improved too especially with the word of wisdom. On Sunday morning we got there and everyone was dressed up and ready to go. Breno, their oldest cousin who was unable to go last week was ready from 7am! So we did a prayer before leaving and walked to church with them once more. Everyone was very happy and we chatted the whole way about church and their baptism. When we got to church, Erique tried to sit at the back again but we brought them all forward and they were super reverent during sacrament meeting. We taught the sacrament better and this time no one refused to take the sacrament due to lack of hunger like last week. :P Josy even turned of her phone and asked me to keep it during church so she wouldn't get distracted. It was a small thing but to me it shows she is changing little by little and becoming more Christlike.

By surprise we had to teach the Gospel Principles class and it was kind of funny. A trainwreck lesson, but funny nevertheless. It was about Agency and the freedom to choose. We only had 3 people there and us three were the teachers. It was a good lesson really, just not well planned. But everyone understood the principle. A less active who is coming back to church asked Breno if he's baptised and she told him that after her baptism everything in her life changed for the better and that he should definitely make that decision. It was amazing to see her bear her testimony so naturally and honestly. :)

After the last lesson we went to look for our investigators to help them get ready and to our surprise they were already being helped by the Young Women in the ward. We didn't have to do anything. Lots of people stayed for the baptism and the meeting was very special. As we sang the hymns, Josy struggled a bit as she was feeling the spirit very strongly. I baptised Josy, Elder Williams baptised Shirley and Elder Gonzales baptised Erique. What a wonderful day and wonderful people!

This week I did a division with a young man in our ward called Moroni and I was super impressed by the way he bore testimony without reservation and took us to his friends' houses. We taught a boy named Julio who was baptised last year but hasn't been going. Moroni bore his testimony and helped me teach the Restoration without me asking anything. It was awesome. He will be a great missionary one day, in fact he already is! :)

He felt we should go to visit a less active member called Xislenea and we went. He was very bold and direct with her and said: "What is preventing you from going back Xis?" As we talked and gave her advice and shared our testimonies she felt the spirit and told us she would be there on Sunday. Let's hope she does! :D Her little 4-5 year old daughter really likes the missionaries. She ran inside and came back with her lips all glossy and pink. Then she waved her hand at me to tell me and secret and as I bent down to listen to her she tried to give me a kiss. Haha, it was hilarious, I just stood up really quickly and told her to kiss her uncle which she did happily. Ah, too funny! :'D

Anyways, I love you all very much! Keep sending me pictures and things, I love seeing your beautiful faces!

Til next week!

Elder Torres