This week has been really good. One day this week (I believe
Wednesday) I read "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" which is an
amazing book. I literally read it in one day. Everyone should read it. The
subtitle I guess you would call it is "The what and how of missionary
work" or something like that. And that is what it tells you. It talks
about how to be a missionary through simple means. It can help everyone, both
full-time missionaries and members, to become better missionaries. So read it.
Our investigators with baptismal dates are doing pretty
well. D….. is doing really well and is definitely ready to be baptized, I
believe. She has changed so much from when we started teaching her to now. The
gospel has brought so much joy into her life that wasn't there before. It is
great to see. L…… is doing well. She has almost quit smoking! We may have
to push her baptism date back because she has only been able to make it to church
once, but only because of some crazy stuff at work. She said they are hiring
two new people so she can have weekends off, so she will definitely be able to
make it to church in the near future. So, we may have to push it back, but she
is pretty much ready for baptism. And she is awesome.
We did a decent amount of service this week. Probably like
6ish hours. I think the goal for the zone is 10 hours a week, but that is hard.
So 6 was good. We did some yard work, worked at a food pantry, and helped a member
in a wheelchair clean out cages for these massive bunnies that she has. It was
all pretty fun. I love doing service!!
This week we also got pass along cards to hand out for the
Because He Lives video, the Easter video the church has put out. It is an awesome
video (I saw it for the first time yesterday) and the cards are an easy way to
start a conversation with people. So that has been good. The first day we got
them we gave out like 15 and had some good talks. You should all totally share
that video, whether on Facebook or suggest it to specific people or whatever.
But it is super great.
Last night we typed up our Family Mission Plans that we will
be starting to implement this week. I'm excited because it should definitely
get members more involved. You can't do mission work without members!
So I had the best day and coolest experience of my mission
so far this week. On Thursday, I went on an exchange with Elder Young, another
Elder in the Dallas area, right next to us. He is super cool and probably the
most obedient missionary I have met. He and his companion Elder Mariano work
out every morning, so Elder Watson and I went with them since we were on
exchanges. We got up at 4:30 (which they do every morning!!) and Elder Young
and I jogged to the church, about a mile away. They picked up some weights at a
members house, and we did a workout in the church parking lot. First real
workout I've done in awhile. My legs were sore...
So, after that Elder Young and I had really good studies
together. Then he did my training for that day, which was also super good. We
came up with really good questions about the Plan of Salvation to ask people,
and then chose one to use throughout the day. The one we chose came in real
handy later.
So, then we start our day. I wrote down a couple people from
our potential investigator list as backup plans with their addresses, because I
still barely know people. I just picked random people. Or so I thought.
Definitely Spirit led. One that I picked we went over there and she was happy
to see us because she needs help moving sometime this week. So, service
opportunity. Then we went and did some service. It was the bunny service
project with Elder Young. Later that night, we visited an investigator and had
about 40 minutes before 9:00. I thought we could just take a long way home and
try to talk to people on the way and be back by 9:00. But Elder Young and the
Spirit had different plans. He suggested we go see L….. and one of the people I
had written down that morning, who live in the same area. L….. had told us she
was out of town all week, and I didn't even know the other lady. but we went.
Didn't even have the time to see either of them, because on the way we met A…….
So this lady is walking by us and Elder Young stops her and
does the short missionary intros tells her that we are testifying that God has
a plan for each of us and asks the question we had come up with that morning -
"How would it be important to you to know God's plan for you?" This
lady immediately starts to cry and tell us that she had just been in an
argument with someone and that she knew that meeting us was God showing her
that he loved her. We then got her name and address and phone number and have
an appointment on Wednesday. It was wild! You always hear about crazy stuff
like that happening, and it really does. It was awesome!!
Spiritual thought this week - I had always known that living
the gospel makes us happy, and I've always known that God loves us. But on my
mission I have connected those two points. God loves us so much that He wants
us to be as happy as possible. He has given us the gospel to help accomplish
that. He gives us prophets and scriptures to guide us; he gives us commandments
to tell us what we need to do; he gave us Christ to give us a perfect example
of what to do; he provided a way to get rid of guilt and unhappiness through
Christ's Atonement; and the sole reason He has done all of that is to make us
happy. People need to understand that this isn't just another church to teach
you what is right and what is wrong. This is the only way to true happiness,
both in this life and the life to come.
So that is something that has become much clearer the last
two months. Anyway, I love you all! Keep being awesome!
Love, Elder Baldridge
No comments:
Post a Comment