September 17, 2012

Hey family and friends, Well another week has gone by.  We are here emailing and I can't believe how fast time is going.  Well I have some wonderful news.  We got dropped by one of our top investigators.  OH wait, that's bad news, and is another story for another day.  UGH.  OK, but really here is the best news ever.  Here is the story from the top. 

Each Saturday we go out to a small Town in Williamsport In, there is a small branch out there and we help support them.  Well we were supposed to be meeting a member at the church building at 3:15 one Saturday to have his help with a teaching appointment, so we finished with one of our other appointments and travel to the church and get there around 3 pm.  Just in front of us a green van, in side of that green van is a family from the Plainfield ward, (west side Indy).  Their daughter is dating a nonmember that lives inside of the boundaries of the Williamsport branch.  They pulled into the church to simply see where the building was, and to see if they could make contact with the missionaries that covered the Williamsport area, and there we were.  Super cool right!?  Well we talked with him for a few moments, and he wanted to meet with us, and we set up an appointment to teach him another day. that day was the 15th.  We actually decided to try by him the week before and we were able to have a small conversation about what it is he's discovered so far.  He had been given a quad to read and study from, a gospel principles book, and a copy of preach my gospel all of which he has read, or has been studying from.  We we surprised at his knowledge already of the gospel.  It helped that his girlfriend was endowed, and is a very strong member from a strong family.  OK, so up to this point we have really only talked with him 2 times.  Well the 15th gets here and we travel out, and have a member from the branch with us, and we sit down and ended up teaching him for 4 hours, and covered most of the gospel topics that he had questions about.  The spirit was very strong, and we ended our discussion with a great conversation about the process of baptism. 

So Today, we get a call from him this morning and he says he has a few questions, he'd been studying for the past few days, and wanted to confirm a few of the ideas he's been thinking about.  Well, since we had already been dropped once, we were a bit nervous to potentially have another investigator drop us...  I handed the phone to my companion and allowed him to talk to him about some of his questions.  The phone call lasted about 10 minutes and while he was talking on the phone I was talking with the Sisters that live below us, (they were outside getting their laundry, and we were just getting done with ours too).  Well Elder Beach gets done with the phone call and comes over to talk to us, and shares with us what happened.  Well, his studies over the last few days lead him to scriptures in the books of the bible, that teach about the apostasy and the Restoration of Gods gospel to come forth in the latter day.  The spirit had taught him that all the things that we talked about were true, and that he wanted to be baptized!  Remember, we have only met with him really 1 time!  Thursday we are going out to visit with him, and to set a baptismal date, and tie up any loose ends.  His 4 kids would eventually join him, two of them are now old enough to be baptized, but we feel we'll baptize them on a later date. 

It's Miracle Monday everyone!   The Lord does all the work with conversion, we are simply a tool to dispense the evidence. 

Well this story really does make me happy, and it strengthens my faith that when people really do look, with an open heart, and real intent, with faith in Christ, they too will receive a convincing conviction about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of the gospel.


We are going to continue to work hard!  So excited for all the work here!

love you all!