Wow family it sounds
like you have had a pretty bad week...Satan obviously hates for us to be on the
lake. Sounds a lot like our McCall trip...but I will continue to pray for your
safety. I am just so glad that no one has gotten hurt from all of this. I love
you guys so much.
Well let me just tell you this week was crazy! It was such a
messed up week with transfers being this week and a baptism and Elder Holland.
We pretty much only had 2 days to work...but we still taught 23 lessons...how?
We don't really know...all we know is that the Lord is helping us so much in
this work. We don't think we are doing enough and always feel like we could be
doing so much more. But then we always get complimented so much from our zone
leaders and district leader. I guess we just don't see that we are working
harder than most missionaries...but we are seeing so many miracles from it :)
So let's start with our investigator that is getting baptized. This week was so hard from him.
Satan is real people, especially right before someone is going to be baptized. And
He experienced that this week. He has had to overcome somethings in his life and he has had a huge desire to change his life and be better. We saw
him everyday this week and Monday and Tuesday he was fine and progressing
towards baptism. Of course he had his doubts and could see Satan trying to
discourage him, but he was so determined. Wednesday we met with him before we
went out for p-day and he was so down and said he wasn't going to be baptized
and didn't want to have a baptismal date. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions
and found out he really hadn't sincerely prayed to know if what we had taught
him was true. PRAYER IS ESSENTIAL TO CONVERSION! So we basically we're super bold
with him (something both sister Dimond and I are super good at, we don't beat
around the bush at all) and told him we know he will be baptized Saturday and
we were going to keep his date. Pretty bold right? Telling someone he will be baptized...taking
agency away? Maybe...but sometimes you have to remind and make people realize
that they have a testimony. So that night we called him and he sounded a lot
better about everything. He said that he knew it was Satan getting into his
head and he needed to be baptized. He prayed that night and the next morning
was his baptismal interview. We saw him before the interview and he said he would
be baptized. And he was so prepared. He passed his interview and the next stop
was baptism! He was really scared and nervous for his baptism but all went
well. He was baptized Saturday and it was so good. The spirit was so strong and
he loved it. Yesterday he received the Holy Ghost and was ordained to be a
priest. Seriously I felt the spirit so much this weekend. He is going
to do amazing things in the church. He will have lots of opposition, but in the
blessing he received when he received the priesthood said he would bring many
people into the church and have lots of opposition. But he will be able to make
it through. He is the best :)
Oh and our other recent convert received the priesthood yesterday as well! I
love seeing people grow in the gospel, it is so amazing.
Now to the adventure of getting to elder Holland...Thursday after the baptismal interview we had to leave to drive for 1 hour up to Bristol. The mission
had hired a coach to take the 3 western zones up to the conference,
so they picked our zone up I'm Bristol. Then we had to drive for 4
hours to Poole to pick up the other 2 zones. Then it was another 4 hours
to the temple where we spent the night. We didn't get to the
temple until like 11, it was such a long day! But it was so fun. 1/3 of the
mission was on this coach so I got to know so many missionaries and
for the first time I actually feel like I have friendships outside my
district. It was literally a party. There are so many cool
missionaries here and it was just fun to get to know everyone.
So Friday morning we were told the bus would leave at 8:15
so we could make it for the conference at 10. But because of laws here the bus driver
had to leave an hour later...so the traffic was worse...and we were on the bus
for 3 hours. So we missed half of the conference by the time we got there. We
didn't get to shake his hand :( which was really sad...but we got there right
when he started to speak and man his talk was SO good. Elder Holland is a boss.
He spoke for 1.5 hours and basically was super bold and powerful. I don't know
if any of you have ever heard him speak of his mission at all, but his mission
was the best time of his life and he has so much passion about it and how it
changed his life forever. Hearing him speak about his mission and how not a day
goes by that he doesn't reflect back to his mission really motivated me to want
to enjoy my time here more, because this is the only time I have to do this. He spoke a lot about not going less active
after our missions. He basically said how dare you do that and that he will
haunt us if we do. He also said that missionaries always say that "when
they get back to real life..." Referring to when they get home...and he
basically rebuked us and said this is real life, right here, right now. This is
the closest thing we will ever get to real life. That was an eye opener for me.
Then he talked about how we are Gods investigator and our only duty on our mission
is to bring one soul to Christ...that one soul being us. And every other person
we bring while we are is just a blessing. He also said boldly (haha classic
elder Holland...) that we don't use our power and authority, that we are not bold.
He said we need to have confidence and not be scared because we have the most
authority on this whole island and we need to use it. Overall it was just such
a good conference. I am sad we didn't get to shake his hand...but at the same
time not because he talked about how he interviews everyone and stares into our
souls when he shakes our hands...that is scary.
I am just so blessed to be serving here in the England
London South mission. This mission has a great legacy of missionaries and I
want to do all I can to keep that legacy going. This truly is the best thing I could
be doing with my life right now. As Elder Holland said, every good thing and every
blessing that I will ever receive will be because of my mission.
What a privilege this work is. We are working hand in hand with the
apostles to share glad tidings of great joy and there is nothing better
:)
Family I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week
in Lake Powell...I miss Lake Powell. But I wouldn't trade this for anything :)
Love,
Sister Robison xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment