May 31, 2011 E-Mail

It's been a really good week so far!! Saturday morning we had a baptism. And she was confirmed on Sunday. It was so awesome. We went to her house on Sunday to see how she was doing. Well she told us that when she was confirmed she just felt warm and could feel something like shaking inside of her. It was definately the feelings of the Holy Ghost. I had the opportunity to baptize her, and when she came up out of the water she was just so happy. She almost looked like a completely different person. It's amazing what the gospel can do for people's lives.

We had another little miracle happen too. She had her interview on Thursday night. Well Thursday afternoon a member called me up to see if we wanted to go eat with them and I told him sure as long as there was going to be a non-member there. So he said yeah Rode will be there. So we went over and the member who called wasn't even there, but his wife and brother-in-law were there. So we ate dinner then we started to teach a lesson. Rode was supposed to be baptized a while back but hadn't come to church. Well recently he has come twice. And something just told me to go through the baptismal interview questions with him and invite him to have an interview that night. So I did and he accepted. We didn't think he would really show up for his interview, but he showed up like 15 minutes early and so he will shortly be baptized. He still needs to come to church again. And the good news is that I get to stay in Mattawa for another transfer so hopefully I will see it all happen! I will be staying with the same companion for another transfer.
One day we were out knocking doors in the middle of nowhere and we came across a cherry orchard. So we went back into it and found a little trailer. So we were talking to the people then all of a sudden this really loud noise went off and scared me half to death because it was really close. Well I thought it was a gun. It turns out they put like air cannons in the orchards and they shoot off every so often to scare of the birds. it about made me wet my pants.
The mission has really been focusing on talking to everyone and asking everyone for referals. A couple of weeks ago we met this hispanic problem and she just started dumping all of her problems on us. She just went on and on for like 45 minutes about her son and going to court and everything. Well when she was done I asked if she knew anyone else we could go visit who was really going through a hard time. And she said sure you can go visit my niece Alma. So we went down the road and found Alma. She told us to come back a week later. So we went back a week later and she let us right in. She's a 20 year old girl who has a 2 year old baby girl. She also began to tell us her life story. It made me realize that when people recognize us as God's servants, that they trust us with stuff like that. Well this girl just broke down and started crying. It was a very spiritual experience. You could feel the spirit so strong. Then we taught her a good lesson and she invited us to come back.
That was about it for this past week. It was a good one. I love this gospel and I'm so grateful for all he blessings it can bring to anyones lives. I was reading in Luke about the Prodigal Son and it just made me realize that we are all children of God and he loves us no matter what we have done. We can also be completely clean of all of our sins through our Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for everything and for all of the love and support! I love you all!!!