October 15, 2012

Hey y'all!

Firstly, it's so great to hear that you are considering a mission. Missions are awesome and I really hope to serve a couples mission someday as well. I'm really enjoying the work here and it's been quite a rollercoaster this week. Early this week was pretty rough. We only got one new investigator on Monday and our numbers were just pretty low despite all our hard work. It's not about the numbers though, but they're good to get us a good vision of what we need to be doing. But basically early week, a lot of people cancelled their appointments or weren't home when we stopped by and stuff like that. We were kind of expecting the rough week though because of the 3 baptisms we had scheduled for Saturday. Since we knew going into it that it would be tough, Elder Memmott and I kept working hard and perservering through the disappointments. Because of our hard work and continued faith, Saturday was pretty much the culmination of all of our blessings. 

 

Saturday morning we knocked some doors in the time we had before lunch which was about an hour. The first door we knocked, this 16 year old black kid answered and we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and a little about the Restoration. He said to come by next week and he'd read some of the Book or Mormon in the meantime. Kids are great. They almost always have curiousity and are willing to at least learn more. They have open hearts and are often humble. It's always a great experience teaching children.

 

The next door we knocked a lady answered the door and just invited us in no questions asked which was wonderful. Her and her husband were there and we talked to them for awhile. Turns out the husband, is writing a book about God and Science and the relations between the two and he's using the Book of Mormon as a large basis for his book. He just ordered one online somewhere and got it sent to his house without a missionary visit or anything so he had a copy! After we testified of the Restoration he said he already read the book and knew that it was true. The lady really felt the Spirit and said she felt strongly about our message. We invited them to be baptized on November 10 and invited them to church. Yesterday the lady came and said she had a good time. We're following up with them tonight. It was such a good morning. But the day only got better.

 

We went to lunch at this little pizza shop that's really good. We decided to eat there every time we had a baptism even though it's slightly pricey. A member from another ward was eating there and just came up and paid for our meal :D It was so nice of her.

 

After lunch we met with an investigator we have, who is on date for the 3rd of November. He's 30 and really loving our message. He feels it's true and we're just helping him prepare to be baptized. He agreed to come to the baptismal service that evening.

 

After we checked up with him we had the 3 baptisms. Two of the three were ages 10 and 9 year old kids whose mom is less active and dad is not a member. While teaching them, we've been able to fellowship their family and hopefully get them started in coming to church more often. The dad is being fellowshipped and enjoyed a paintball activity with the Elders quorum Saturday morning before the baptism. He's had some negative views on the church in the past, but has opened up more recently. Hopefully he'll be open to being taught soon .The other person who was baptized, I've mentioned in previous letters and it was great to have him finally baptized after a few troublesome weeks. Their confirmations were yesterday and wonderful.

 

After the baptism Elder Memmott and I went to Wal-mart to print off the pictures from the baptism where we met this preacher while waiting in line to get our pictures. At first the preacher made a few cracks about Romney and then asked "all joking aside, do Mormons think they're better than everyone else?" we answered that attitudes like that do not come from the top and people who have that attitude will have a price to pay at the judgment seat. Elder Memmott then said, "sir, what if I promise you from the bottom of my heart that our message will change your life?" the preacher said he wouldn't believe him but then we were able to boldly testify and teach with such a strong undeniable spirit. Elder Memmott spoke so strongly that the preacher man lost his breath and was utterly speechless. He explained that Christ set up a church when he was on the Earth and using on Bible references, he explained everything that our church had and that other churches were lacking after the preacher said the Bible is the end all be all word of God. He was so moved by the Spirit, as he testified incredibly boldly. The Spirit was able to work through us to have him know exactly what he needed to hear. He needed to hear bold things. For example at one point Elder Memmott said, "you've been taught by wolves in sheep's clothing" When he was blown away by a statement by Elder Memmott, I testified that the Book of Mormon was true scripture and that by reading it, we can gain a personal witness of the truth of Jesus Christ, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church and that Joseph Smith was God's chosen prophet. After I said that Elder Memmott said "if you believe that prophets and apostles don't exist, I would suggest that you lack the faith that Christ was perfect. If he set up a church that was fallible then Christ would cease to be perfect and you and I would cease to exist" or somthing like that. At one point he said his church was going to teach a class about Mormons and Elder Memmott said we'd teach it so he wouldn't teach false doctrines. At one point he just said "I don't have the knowledge to combat what you're saying, we need to talk again" and he gave us his card and we gave him our number. The Spirit wouldn't let him rebuke the word's of God. It was awesome. We felt like Alma and Amulek testifying boldly of the word of God. I only have God to thank for these amazing experiences that we've been having. I know that it is through him that all these miracles are brought to pass. It's an amazing experience, being set apart as a representative of Jesus Christ. I know this church is true. Without it, there isn't a clear and direct path back to God's presence.

 

Love ya, Elder Nair