Do you have enough faith to NOT baptize?

Do you have enough faith to baptize?  Do you have enough faith to NOT baptize?  That is what our mission President Gelwix asks the missionaries here and I learned what that meant today when all the Less Actives we have been working so hard with still didn't come to church.  Not as much fun but we work hard again for another Sunday.

We had a fantastic Zone training Friday that lasted from 8:30-5:30 and I wasn't bored one minute of it. And then on the way home (which took an hour) we stopped at a fireside given by Doug Brinley.

 He was so informative and good.  He spoke about the Priesthood, Temple and Marriage.  For instance, our signature to our covenant contract with God is when we do the ordinance.  Like baptism. And covenants are what gives us power to live in a fallen world.
 The first Five chapters of the Book of Moses is the Temple endowment for Moses. (Ann would love this speaker!)
  He also explained that the twelve oxen holding up the baptismal font in the temples represent the twelve tribes of Isreal which we all know.  But then he explained we are gathering Isreal through the work for the dead done there.
 He told that we are to get married in the Temple so God can assign you the elect portion of the premortal spirits. (found in Mormon Doctrine).
Our homes are to be MTCs for our children.  (Everyone should be doing Family Home Evenings out of the Preach My Gospel book and the children should be doing the teaching.)
It was such a wonderful experience for another hour and a half.  And at the end he said, "If your parents didn't have any kids you probably didn't either". (That's for Taylor)

Egg Picking Party

We went over to Mike Hernandez and his wife Cindy's place to teach a first discussion.  What a place! They had chickens, and geese and doves and a peacock.  There were a couple of animals from the ostritch family and a tiny horse and a lot of dogs!

When we started to teach them the husband said he thought the Catholic church and our church were about the same.  To our credit we didn't even crack a smile.  We just asked if we could start at the beginning and maybe he would see where we were different.  By the time Glen finished the Restoration lesson and finished up with the Joseph Smith story, the man just sat there staring at him.  I think we can honestly say he will never say THAT again. He gave us a tour of the place and let me collect the eggs for the day.  He also g
gave us two  goose eggs. Haven't decided what to do with those yet.

Not a day of rest-but a great day!

We started by calling Christian for his birthday and got to talk with TJ and Jenny too!

Then we went to the branch in Chowchilla.  Mission Pres. asked us to scope that branch out too. It was Glen's idea to go today.  I personally would have waited until we got Merced going better.  But no, it had to be today.  The branch there is English speaking with real nice people and a few Spanish speaking using head sets. The meeting was very good with the High Councilman explaing why Korahor was wrong.  But after Glen caught this older couple leaving (yes, older than us) and that was the amazing part.

They had come because her son (about 40) had recently got baptised and he told his mom and step-dad to go to this Mormon church and just look for the missionaries!  They didn't find us but Glen found them and they asked us to come to their home this week to teach them.  You know, the thing missionaries dream about.

Then we came back to Merced and went to our own branch where 5 men and young men came to the class to learn about receiving the Priesthood. That would be so great.  And Pres. Estrada asked us to teach a Temple prep class!  This is looking better and better.

We are also enjoying the luscious fruit in this area and the great fruit markets. A lady vendor there asked us for one of our books!  Glen had to run to the car and get one. This is really fun.

Wow again!

Every day I think wow.  Nothing else describes what we are doing here and the help from the Lord that we are getting.

The Stake Pres. asked us to go teach the missionary lessons again to less actives.  And I mean less, less actives.  We went to four homes first.  Everyone of them said we could teach the lessons again.

Course you have to put something in the Trust Bank before you can make withdrawals.
 So for one sister Glen and the young missioanries cleared and prepared her garden plot for her. She was so happy.

 Another family had bought a computer but didn't speak enough English to understand the person in the Phillipines trying to explain it in very broken English.  So Glen took awhile and got it up and running for them.  They were so excited.

They are happy to see us now. And now we can invite the Spirit into their homes and that works miracles.

But the best one was the investigator family we have been teaching. We knew the father had been avoiding us and the lessons. So we said we would try one more time.  He was not a happy camper when we got there.  But by the time we left the Spirit was so strong that he was willing to give the closing prayer and ask God if what we taught was true.  And when Glen asked him how he felt he said he felt good.

So tonight I feel good.

Learning how to put pictures on the blog.  

We love hearing from the grandkids--and anyone else out there.
        

Let the Spriit Be Your Guide

The spirit is really helping us in this work.  Our Relief Society President was inactive so I felt to take another sister in the Branch and go visit her and say that one of the responsibilities of the RS Presidency is to teach the lesson once a month so would she come and teach the class this Sunday?  I was so nervous and prepared to have to convince her.  Instead she just said "Yes".  Could have blown me over with a feather.  And she did come and did teach and it was great. Then I was talking to a young man and the young Elders and they were talking about a young man in the Branch that wasn't going to come to church today so I said to go and get him.  They were surprised and said he wouldn't be ready.  I told them to wait for him.  So they did and right in the middle of my Sacrament meeting talk I saw them walk in-with him!  So that was two exta people that swelled our numbers to 25 attending Sacrament meeting.  But it was really rewarding.

The Stake President finally spoke with us and gave us our marching orders.  There is a program here where you pick some people and the missionaries (us and the young Elders) go and teach them the missionary discussions again.  This is for the less actives and the part member families.  We are excited to get started.

And yes, Elder Pack and I were the speakers in Sacrament Meeting.  Everyone said what a great job I did and no one seemed to notice that I skipped reading a line of the talk.  So who was really listening right?:)

Missionary Training in Heaven

We went to another fantastic meeting with Pres. Gelwix.  And when I say meeting I mean from 8:30am to 5:30 pm! 
Some thoughts from it:  The purpose of prayer is not to change the mind of God but to align our will to His.
                           Working for God on earth doesn't pay much but the retirement plan is out of this world.
                            God does what only a God can do.  He asks us to do those things that we can do.
                             When you feel like you are going to drown, remember your lifeguard walks on water.
 
 And my favorite missionary thought was found in D&C 138:56
"Even before they were born, they with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men."

We knew then we were going to be missionaries now.  How fun is that.

Catch the Wave

This session of General Conference was a wonderful time to be serving a mission.  Pres. Russel M Nielson said there is a wave of missionary work right now and we have caught the wave.  He also said this wave is not man-made.  The Lord has said "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." The time is now.  How grateful I am for all those who support us behind the lines to make it possible for us to be here.

Neil L Anderson said our desire to share the gospel takes us to our knees and boy is that true.  The Lord really does guide us in what we do.  He really does put words into our mouths when our minds go blank and shows us what to say.  He quoted a missionary saying, "this isn't missionary work-this is missionary fun!". I have found it is both.

Between the morning and afternoon conferences we have a pot luck dinner at the Stake Center where we get to know the members a little better. I must admit that I cheated and listened to the conference talks in the chapel in English.  Elder Pack sat in the Relief Society room with the Spanish members. We had taken an English speaking young lady that had only been a member three months so this was her first General Conference.

The Branch President caught us and asked us to speak in Sacrament meeting this coming Sunday.  In Spanish.

We did it!

We taught our first full lesson tonight! Rather, Glen did and I smiled on que. The couple was Ricardo and his wife that we "accidently" found a couple of days ago.  They were way interested in the three degrees of glory. I don't know why.  She was nodding through everything we said and they wrote down where to find the scriptures we gave them.  After a little instruction Ricardo said the closing prayer and it was Great! Teaching is the most rewarding kind of mission! Course I haven't tried anything else yet but it is really great.

Glen passed out cards and got a promising couple's phone and email today.  He is really fearless and very good at this. I am great back-up:)

The Relief Society Presidency (not to be confused with the RS President because she is inactive) invited me to go visiting the sisters with them next week!  Glen and I visited about 18 member's homes this past week.  It has been very interesting.  So many good people everywhere. One little boy snuck up and handed me a grape as I sat there.  They share what they have.

One of the couples in the Branch invited us to dinner last night.  It was really hot but so kind of them. There weren't enough chairs for everyone so the wife stood the whole time serving us. I hope she ate something after we left.

wrong person turns out to be just right

This is so fun!  We made up flyers for the ward members to remind them about General Conference and to have a reason to go visit everyone. So we went to this one house and the person had moved away a year ago! Yeah, that is how our branch list is. However, Ricardo de Jesus answered the door and let us in! Glen taught our first lesson to a non-member, starting with the Apostacy. The man was full of questions. First he asked us how people get baptized in our church. When Glen explained immersion the man's eyes lit up!  Apparently that was the answer he was after! We have an appointment again for Friday night.

We visited two ladies in the ward who live together to share rent. It is hard for these people to come to church because they often work.  One of the ladies asked if I was married to Glen. Then she asked if he had been a good husband for these forty two years. I told her he was a good husband because he lived the gospel. And he is better now than forty two years ago.  Neither of these ladies had a good experience with husbands.

We also went to a less active member family that were really great.  Her mother was there too and cried when she tried to tell us how she felt about God. The young Elders were there too.  Glen bore testimony about our prophet and also Joseph Smith.  When they asked me to add something I told them that if they have a question in their lives and listen to General Conference, they will hear the answer.

Mind you, all of these things were in Spanish. I don't know how I understand most of what is said or let alone reply.  But it is way funner than teaching in English.

shopping for investigators

We have just the best time when we go to the store!  We went to WalMart today and Glen found a man with his son that was interested in our name tags.  So Glen talked to him and got his phone number.  He speaks really good English so we may send the referral on but maybe Glen will go with the Elders and see which language he prefers.  He has liver failure and is interested in learning more about God.
So while Glen was talking to this man, I was at the checkout and the lady there saw them talking and asked what ward I go to.  When I asked if she was a Mormon she said her family is but they are less active since her husband's parents both died and he has had a hard time with it. I gave her our number and a card.  We will be going back soon.
We went and visited a semi-active woman in the branch who has adopted four kids and has three of her own.  She goes through the Foster program.  She was impressed we had an indian foster boy and we have two adopted grandchildren. She said she will watch conference on the computer.
Glen and I made flyers up about General Conference and will take them around to as many families in the ward as we can this week.  It is a good way to get in the door.