Monday, January 25, 2016

We Had Such A Good Week

Sac Zone

January 25, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

We had such a good week. We were able to add 5 new investigators which was really nice. Our teaching pool is growing but we still need more haha. It's tough because a lot of people are just too busy and they don't want to make time for us to come over. So we only end up getting to visit with them like once a week or once every two weeks. We are really trying to add some investigators that we can see more often so they can progress and move towards baptism.

We had an awesome lesson earlier this week with a part member family in our Ward! The mom and kids are members but haven't been to church in a while. And the boyfriend of the mom isn't a member. He has talked to the missionaries before and been friendly but never really picked up on the lessons. So anyway, we passed by on Wednesday just to say hi to them and see how they were doing. They ended up letting us inside and we were able to sit and really get to know them. Towards the end of our visit we asked if we could share a quick message before we left. Because the family hadn't been to church in so long we focused on the importance of the scriptures and specifically the Book of Mormon in our lives. We testified of the power the Book of Mormon has in bringing families together and providing us guidance and direction. We had the boyfriend's full attention. Then a scripture was brought to my mind in 2 Nephi 32. Specially in verses 3 and 5. In verse 3 it talks about how when we feast upon the words of Christ it tells us all things that we should do. Then in verse 5 it tells us that if we enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto us all things that we should do. We applied these verses to him and he was zeroed in on us. The spirit was so strong in the room. We could tell by his face that he was feeling it too and he knew the things we were saying were true. We didn't feel like it was the time to invite him to be baptized though. We invited the whole family to read the Book of Mormon every day together and also to pray to receive a confirmation or a reconfirmation that it was true. They accepted and we are going by tomorrow to follow up on how it went. If they really do keep that commitment I know the boyfriend will be baptized.

Cool story about one of the new investigators we added this week. Her name was Phyllis. She went online and ordered a Bible from http://mormon.org. We called her up and set a time to go by and give it to her. We talked a lot about it before and really wanted to give her a Book of Mormon too. So we went in hoping the somehow give her both. So we met up with her and we sat down at a table in her apartment complex. We gave her the bible and just started to get to know her and her beliefs. It was cool because as we got to know her, she wanted to know about us. She asked a few questions about missionary work and about our church. We were able to answer those and then we transitioned into a restoration lesson. It funny how it always just happens. She was so open about everything we taught. She had never heard of the Book of Mormon so we explained it to her really simply and it made sense to her. We invited her to read and pray about it and she gladly accepted. Then we asked her if she would be baptized. She told us she wants a couple weeks to read but said she would be if she finds out it is true! She is going to be gone for a couple weeks which stinks but hopefully the next time we see her she will have her answer.

I was able to go on several exchanges this week. I went on two team ups with the new missionaries in the zone Elder Fudge and Elder Seamons. Elder Michie and I also did exchanges with the Assistants. I really enjoyed all of them. It's cool how much there is to learn just from serving around different missionaries. It's always fun to get to know the other Elders a little better.

All the missionaries in the world watched a missionary broadcast this week. We received some training from a few of the apostles and members of the missionary department. They focused a lot on teaching repentance and baptizing converts. I really enjoyed it. I was reminded of the importance of the spirit in missionary work. Specifically in following the promptings of the Holy Ghost in teaching to the needs of our investigators. Also that as we do that the people will feel our love for them and more importantly God's love for them. So I have really been focusing on paying more attention to the promptings that come to me throughout the day. It really does make a huge difference.

Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Love,

Elder Gammell

No comments:

Post a Comment