July 27, 2010

We have some baptisms coming up here really soon. Our investigator who had an abortion passed her interview on Sunday with the mission president. So, now we have got to interview her two kids and they'll be getting baptized. She had problem on Sunday though. Some of the "old" members in this branch think that the new members should serve them and treat them like gods, so they treat new members and investigators like dirt. And, one of the old members did that to this investigator on Sunday. And, that investigator wanted nothing to do with going to church anymore. And, we tried to schedule to meet her after church, but she said she didn't want to.

So, after church, we just went over there anyway. She said she didn't want to learn. I told her too bad. She protested again. So, I said when we don't want to learn is when we really need to learn. And, I told her to get her kids and her scriptures and that we were going to learn, so we went and sat down and waited. We taught about obtaining hope through the plan of salvation and the atonement of Jesus Christ. She cried the whole time and wouldn't commit to go to church next Sunday. So, we read the thing in Moroni about charity. And, we committed her to follow Moroni's council and pray for charity. She wouldn't. So, we had her pray right then and there. She finally did, but there still wasn't much sign of progress.

So, the next day we went over there and met her. We were teaching more about the plan of salvation. And, she started bringing up what had happened on Sunday, and I told her not to but she wouldn't listen. And, after she had been telling what happened to the member, I opened up the D&C where it says if we don't forgive people that it's a bigger sin on our part. I then had a feeling that came from the Spirit to tell her how I felt. I then told her that what that member did was wrong. Then I told her that I never wanted to hear of it again, that she was never to think or say of it again either. I then told her that she was going to forgive this woman who offended her. I then told her that I didn't come to her house nearly everyday for the past 3 months teaching her about the gospel of Jesus Christ, teaching her how to be like Him, and how to follow Him, just to have her lose to the first major temptation Satan is going to send her way the week before she and her kids are supposed to be baptized. I told her that I might as well have not have ever come, or ever started teaching, or ever had her learn. So, then I very stearnly told her that she was going to still continue learning with us, that she is going to keep going to church on Sunday in order to take the sacrament and receive Christ's atonement, that she is going to keep preparing herself and her kids for baptism, and that she was going to forgive this woman. I then said that we will be coming back every day to make sure of it too, and that we were going to teach about happy things that are spiritually uplifting, such as faith, hope, charity, love, service, the restoration, the atonement, and any other thing that will prepare us spiritually for the kingdom of God.

I have worked so hard trying to help this family and doing everything I possibly could for them to lead them unto Christ. I fasted, I prayed, I read the scriptures, I loved them. So, when I told them all of that, it was with every fiber of my soul. We've been doing the things that I said we would do, and I think she is in for a speedy recovery. She is doing very well. She's excited to meet us everyday now. And, it's exciting to teach her too. That family means everything to me. And, they are well on their way to baptism now.

Some Buddhist holiday was the other day. And, everyone went to the Buddhist temples to go worship idols and other things that come from the great apostasy that has led them to be greatly fooled by the false traditions of our fathers. One family that we're teaching didn't go, they said they wanted to follow the true God that could actually help them in life. When we told them they would have to take down the shrine and get rid of all the false traditions, they didn't seem too happy about it. But, they didn't go to the wat. So, they're making way good progress. They still haven't taken the shrine down, but I'm pretty sure God could help us whip up a dang good lesson on taking it down, and they'll be more than happy to take it down after that.

God is working miracles every day. It's such a cool site to see. We got some baptisms coming up here real soon so it should be pretty exciting. And, our investigators are all doing pretty dang well.