Great Week With Baptism & Miracles

Hello all!

This week has been yet again amazing.  I absolutely love being a missionary.

Beautiful sunset see from our apartment

Monday was pretty interesting.  P-Day was fun, as we had a zone basketball get together.  Being tall sure is an advantage there.  Afterwards was even better though.  We went on splits so that i could go down to temple square and my companion could teach and finalize things with Aubree.  Things went well with him, and great with me.  We were planning to do the tour for an investigator named Brooke along with her friend Rachel who is coming back to church.  Brooke had something come up and cancelled on us which totally threw a wrench into our plans, but Rachel brought her less-active sister instead.  We still taught the restoration by using the statues (we being myself and some temple square sisters) before going in and watching the God's Plan video.  That video is amazing and makes pretty much everyone cry the first time they see it.  We were able to commit both Rachel and her sister to try and get to the temple to do baptisms for the dead, and eventually be worthy to be sealed there.  It was incredible.

Tuesday also went well, although it was a lot less exciting.  We visited one of Elder Steiner's recent converts from the area who had the middle lobe of his right lung removed last week.  He was actually doing great, and they are going to have us over for dinner tonight with a YSA (less-active or maybe non-member).  I did go on exchanges with Elder Jackman so that Elder Steiner and Elder Mbawa could teach a young lady they both knew previously.  That lesson fell through so that wasn't good, but what can we do except keep trying.

Wednesday was just a lot of contacting less-active members most of whom are not home in the afternoon.  The evening got better with another trip down to temple square, this time with Caleb.  We showed him the temple exhibit where you get to see all the rooms inside the temple.  It was perfect for him.  He has really been going through a hard time: his girlfriend dumped him, his car got impounded, a lot of his friends have left him, and other such nonsense.  Thankfully, he has been buoyed up by the spirit and can see that coming back to church has really helped him.  We are trying to help him keep that attitude.

District meeting was great as usual on Thursday.  We have so many good laughs and times together, and our District Leader does a fine job of bringing the spirit into each part of the meeting.  It makes us look forward to them each week.

Friday was amazing.  Aubree was finally baptized and what a baptism it was.  To begin, we had a miscommunication and there were no baptismal clothes for her.  Our assistant ward mission leader ended up just bringing his mothers temple dress, which we made work.  Next, there were so many people there we couldn't fit into the Relief Society room, so we moved everyone over into the chapel. Elder Steiner conducted and he loved it.  The baptism and confirmation were both done and it was truly amazing.  While Aubree changed into dry clothes, Elder Steiner and I taught the restoration to everyone there, and invited them all to be baptized.  That really helped keep the spirit there.  A huge miracle ended up happening because of this baptism.  Another set of Elders has been working with this exchange student from Germany and they had stalled.  She said she knew it was true but that she might still want to break the word of wisdom and other things.  The district leader was on exchanges with them and helped them get her to the baptism.  After it was over, she came up to him and asked, "How long would it take for me to get registered for baptism?"  They did the interview right then and there!

Saturday was nice because more of our young single adults were home when we went to go see them.  Unfortunately no referrals came out of it, but one of the young ladies we went to see met with the bishop yesterday, so we might have made a difference there.

Sunday was great as usual.  One of the Young ladies we were teaching (Caitlyn) was transferred to the bountiful missionaries where she lived.  It didn't go as well as we though and she was super discouraged, so much so that she fell off date and told us she with meet with us again in a few weeks.  We scrambled forces and with the help of some of her friends in one of our wards helped her get to church.  We sat by her and just helped her be more positive.  Later that night we taught her a great lesson and now she is totally ready to go.  She is even back on date for the 22 of June!  The spirit really worked on her, and we are going to get permission to baptize her in our ward where her fellowship is.

We also finally had our first lesson with Toby.  He is an amazingly ready young man and the lesson went great.  His girlfriend (very less-active) was also there, but didn't take to it nearly as well.  It is pretty funny because when we committed them both to read the Book of Mormon she was like "maybe, sure" and he was like "Yes!" Then he said, 'We'll read it together!" That totally made my day.  He also accepted a baptismal date for the 29 of June.  We are so excited for him, and hopefully he will be able to get his girlfriend as excited about it as he is.

That sums up my great week!  Here are investigators and Less actives that I am working with that would use prayers:
Troy, Caitlyn, Toby, Alejandro, Brooke, Jeff, James, Karen, Morgan, Anthony, Taylor, Aubree, Emily, Thea, Rachel, Caleb, Jacqulyn, Bridget, Tara

Thanks everyone! You are all loved

Elder Beckstead