Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Sharing my spirit

Hey everyone, So this week was good! We had a baptism yesterday of one of our investigators. IT was awesome. Her name is Betty Ta'i. The ward came out to support her and her family was there to. Our Bishop also came a gave them a really beautiful marriage blessing. 

We found a new investigator this week. Her name is Anoun and she's awesome!! Apparently, she's been praying for us to show up to talk to her. She's been extremely prepared by God to receive our message. She accepted to be baptized on the 27th of this month which is her birthday. She came to church and loved it. She was also at the baptism of Betty and she cried because she felt the Spirit. The ward is really happy because they all know her because the rest of her family is all members. 

So we had our interviews with President Bize this week and he told me that I have a problem with teaching a lot of lessons without ever getting a baptism. He told me to read Chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel which talks about commitments. I was kind of mad at him at first for saying that. And I came up with a lot of excuses in my mind, like,  I've never been in an amazing area that gets a lot of baptisms or where the members work a lot, or I've always been in sort of not very good areas. But I humbled myself and asked God how I need to improve? And I also asked whether or not President was inspired to give me this counsel. So I read the chapter and I was drawn to the section about Bearing Testimony Often. As I was reading, (and my mom's  going to love this), the Spirit told me that " You are very good at helping people understand that the message is true but you're not very good at helping them feel that it's true." My mom's been telling me since forever that "I don't open up and let my spirit show. And that I'm too closed off because I don't want to show vulnerability. And if I would just let my spirit guide me and shine through me, instead of just using my brain and knowledge, it would make all the difference, not only on my mission but in my life." So this week I decided to try and bear very sincere testimony during all of our lessons. I've already seen the difference. I also learned that Heavenly Father knows me and inspired President Bize to tell me things I needed to hear, even if they were hard to hear. And that I need to trust in my leaders (and my mom).

I know that this church is true. I know that this is the Lord's work because I see His Hand as He helps and works with His children. I know He loves us and I know that the true Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ were restored by a living Prophet. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,
Elder Cole Porter

Betty and her husband (with me and Elder Edmunds) at her baptism.
View of my area with the mountains in the background.
Me and Elder Edmunds with our ward mission leader, at his home.



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