It
feels strange to be writing again after not writing you guys last week.
Now I realize just how much time I could be saving by not writing an
entire epistle home every single week.. Hahaha. Nevertheless, I shall
continue. But I'm NOT happy about it!
So I just sent you off a picture. This past Saturday Tanner
got baptized, and it was a really awesome day for him and his whole
family. His mom is a recent convert of about 4 years and hasn't been
active for a long time, and his dad isn't a member. For the past month
that we've been teaching their family we've seen the real desire -
especially from his mom - to return to activity in the church as she's
re-learned the lessons. It was as if she was rediscovering why she
joined the church in the first place, and it awakened a new found desire
to rekindle her testimony and start up again. Their family is a really
good example of a lot of the work we do here in Utah. Our goal is never
to just baptize a kid. We try and invite the Spirit into a part-member
families' home to help the whole family partake of the Gospel, and
helping a youth come to baptism is a catalyst to do that. Tanner's
baptism was awesome - it was really funny to see how uncomfortable his
dad was with the Spirit that was there.. He kept shifting in his seat
and you could tell that he was just trying to ignore it. We taught the
Restoration lesson while they were changing back into dry clothes and
at the end we invited all who were in attendance to act on the feelings
of the Spirit they had felt, the witness that God had given them saying
the things we had spoken were true. Right after we made the invitation,
Tanner's now-active older sister turned to their dad and looked at him
expectantly.. And he deliberately shook his head. People are stubborn!
But at the very least, seeds have been planted, and their family is on
the right track.
I guess I never wrote about the baptisms we had last week
since it was Mother's day weekend, huh? Mercedie and Danailie got
baptized on the 11th by a family friend, the one that mom so
affectionately dubbed "tattooed Jesus." He was super nervous to do the
baptism, but his bishop came to support him and talked him through it.
Mercedie and Danailie's uncle was there too and he's not a member of
the church, and a very similar thing happened as with Tanner's dad. You
could TOTALLY tell he was feeling the Spirit, and was choosing to
ignore it. I can't believe people are so stubborn! If people would just
act on the things that they feel.. I mean we set it up for them
perfectly! We told everyone at the beginning of the baptismal service
to pay attention to their feelings, then described the feelings of the
Spirit, then testified that IF they felt something like that, it was
God telling them it was true. And then people don't believe it! Agency
agency agency.. Right after their baptism was Joe's baptism. It
was like, one of the most spiritual experiences I can recall. A lot of
his family showed up as well as a lot of the ward. He got baptized by
his brother in law.. And when he was baptized he was slightly turned to
the back of the font. We tried to warn them to keep turning, but it was
too late. He said the prayer and when he went to baptize him he smashed
Joe's head on the back wall of the font. FREAK!! He still went all the
way under, but I just felt awful for Joe and for Josh. Especially
because it was a day they had both been waiting for for so long, and
something as stupid as that had to happen! After they got changed Joe
came back in and we invited him to bear his testimony.. He didn't seem
to even notice that his skull had just been bashed in haha. But he bore
one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard. He said he had
been studying Preach My Gospel and came across a scripture that he
shared with everyone. D&C 20:37 - "And again, by way of commandment
to the church concerning the manner of baptism - all those who humble
themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with
broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that
they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take
upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him
to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received
of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be
received by baptism into his church." And that.. About sums it all up.
We've just been so blessed lately with the success that we've
had. We're definitely on the finding side of things again, but it's on
the upturn. We've been dealing with a HUGE headache involving the
sister missionaries. Ughhhh. The Spanish sisters have
been teaching people in English and trying to get us to set up
fellowships/friends and to get the bishop to meet them. I'm sorry
sisters... But that's our job and we can do that on our own. It's just
really irritating because they are specifically assigned to teach the
people who attend the Spanish branch, and that is where their sacred
trust from the Lord is placed. They are entitled to revelation for
their investigators. What they have been doing is finding English
people and teaching them 3 or 4 times, turning the referral over to us,
and right before we go over to teach the person they go over and visit
them and say "So do you want the Elders to come or do you just want the
Sisters to just keep teaching you?" That's not how it works! There is
no 'option' as to who you are taught by, and there are no gender
requests. ESPECIALLY because they're supposed to be teaching Spanish
people. I'm really sick of it - we're not the only ones having the
problem.. The same Spanish sisters went and talked to an entire
nonmember family that the Zone Leaders in south Brigham were teaching
and convinced them to be taught by sister missionaries instead. They're
literally just stealing investigators from people and if anyone tries
to talk to them about it, they play the victim and say that we're
attacking them because we don't like sister missionaries. And yes -
right now I really don't like sister missionaries! They've taken 12-15
investigators away from other missionaries , and they're
literally not teaching a single Spanish person. We've talked to the
mission president and the assistants about it and the Sisters are
getting a specialty training on Thursday to solve the whole issue. I'm
glad it's finally blowing over because this isn't the way that
missionary work should be. Teaching someone outside of your area is
violating the trust that we've been given, the stewardship that the
Lord has given us. And to justify it and fight it for selfish reasons
is NOT how a representative of Jesus Christ should act. It's not about
the glory of who gets to baptize them.. It's about what is going to
keep this individual or family strong in the Gospel. And if Spanish
missionaries are teaching investigators in wards where they literally
have no connections to bishops, ward times, or even friends, then that
person is going to slip through the cracks. Luckily the sisters that
are doing it are not in our zone, so we haven't had to take all the
heat for it.. But it's going to go down in a couple days and I think
we're going to get a bunch of investigators back that they've taken.
Whoop-dee-doo! :)
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