Now, I don't want to ruin the title of the email so early... but I also don't want to lead you on through the whole email with the title leaving you hanging... so I'll tell you right now. Yesterday Elder Hatch and I had 3 different people come up to us and say "I/We want to be baptized!" And we were stoked, obviously! Now, on the downside, not a single one of these people live in our area. 2 of them live in our stake and the sisters in my district have been teaching them and yesterday out of nowhere they showed up to church and told us that they want to be baptized, so the sisters are going to be working hard with her and her 14 year old daughter for the next few weeks getting them ready for baptism! As for the other one. She lives in a part of Guatemala called Santa Rosa... which is in the South Mission. The closest chapel is about 2 and a half hours away from them. Her parents are members, but they only go once a month when they come to their grandmother's house, who happens to live in our ward! So... we're trying to figure out how we can get this girl baptized, because she must fulfill the Lord's requirements for baptism... but it should definitely happen! I just don't know when or where.
This week has been a little hard on Elder Hatch and I. We haven't quite had all the success for which we have been hoping and praying. On Wednesday we were supposed to have a visit with Gilda and Marian and they were going to tell us when they want to be baptized, but they had to cancel the visit and we didn't see them again until Sunday. The good news is, that they still came to church! Which was a huge blessing! We are hoping in this week to be able to talk to them about a date for baptism. So I'll keep you posted on that.
As for another huge blessing of investigators coming to church... As I said last week we talked to Max and Xiumara who have the crazy religious backgrounds... well last Sunday when we had our lesson, we invited them to come to church the next week and they said they weren't sure, but they might try. Well, on Friday night we saw them going out to get tortillas for dinner or something like that and so we talked to them and they said that they were planning on coming to church with us! And, THEY DID!!! They are some of few investigators who have come to church without me passing by to get them! Max has always seemed very interested in our message, and Sunday was no different. They were there for the majority of Sacrament meeting, and stayed for our Principles of the Gospel class, the class for investigators, and they seemed very interested! More than anything, Max. We have another cita scheduled with them for this Thursday and we hope to hear great things with them! I think that they are also a definite possibility for baptism! We'll hope and pray!
Well... I think that's pretty much all I have to say about this week. In my personal study the last few weeks I've been pretty focused on the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I'm almost done with the book of Mosiah. On Saturday I was reading Mosiah 27 and marveling at the story of the conversion of Alma the younger. I only have my scriptures in Spanish, so my translation won't be scripturally perfect, but you'll get the point. 24-26 "I have repented of my sins, and the Lord hath redeemed me; behold, I have been born of the Spirit. And the Lord said unto me: Marvel thou not that all mankind... should be born again; yea, be born of God, be changed from their carnal and fallen state to a state of righteousness, being redeemed by God, becoming his sons and daughters. and thus they become new creatures..." I love the way they look at "to be born again". There is a scripture reference to Moses 6:59 which mentions rebirth. As we are born physically, we are born with water, blood, and spirit. Likewise, as we are "born again", we must be born of water, the spirit, and blood. The waters of baptism, the reception of the Gift of the Holy Spirit, and cleansed through the atoning blood of Christ. As we follow this process, we truly are "born again". Baptism is not in and of itself the spiritual rebirth, but rather when we allow are ourselves to be converted, "becoming (God's) sons and daughters". When we decide to let this change take effect and become even "new creatures" we are then born again and apply the redeeming blood of Christ into our lives and can "inherit the kingdom of God". Just something to think about :)
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
This week has been a little hard on Elder Hatch and I. We haven't quite had all the success for which we have been hoping and praying. On Wednesday we were supposed to have a visit with Gilda and Marian and they were going to tell us when they want to be baptized, but they had to cancel the visit and we didn't see them again until Sunday. The good news is, that they still came to church! Which was a huge blessing! We are hoping in this week to be able to talk to them about a date for baptism. So I'll keep you posted on that.
As for another huge blessing of investigators coming to church... As I said last week we talked to Max and Xiumara who have the crazy religious backgrounds... well last Sunday when we had our lesson, we invited them to come to church the next week and they said they weren't sure, but they might try. Well, on Friday night we saw them going out to get tortillas for dinner or something like that and so we talked to them and they said that they were planning on coming to church with us! And, THEY DID!!! They are some of few investigators who have come to church without me passing by to get them! Max has always seemed very interested in our message, and Sunday was no different. They were there for the majority of Sacrament meeting, and stayed for our Principles of the Gospel class, the class for investigators, and they seemed very interested! More than anything, Max. We have another cita scheduled with them for this Thursday and we hope to hear great things with them! I think that they are also a definite possibility for baptism! We'll hope and pray!
Well... I think that's pretty much all I have to say about this week. In my personal study the last few weeks I've been pretty focused on the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I'm almost done with the book of Mosiah. On Saturday I was reading Mosiah 27 and marveling at the story of the conversion of Alma the younger. I only have my scriptures in Spanish, so my translation won't be scripturally perfect, but you'll get the point. 24-26 "I have repented of my sins, and the Lord hath redeemed me; behold, I have been born of the Spirit. And the Lord said unto me: Marvel thou not that all mankind... should be born again; yea, be born of God, be changed from their carnal and fallen state to a state of righteousness, being redeemed by God, becoming his sons and daughters. and thus they become new creatures..." I love the way they look at "to be born again". There is a scripture reference to Moses 6:59 which mentions rebirth. As we are born physically, we are born with water, blood, and spirit. Likewise, as we are "born again", we must be born of water, the spirit, and blood. The waters of baptism, the reception of the Gift of the Holy Spirit, and cleansed through the atoning blood of Christ. As we follow this process, we truly are "born again". Baptism is not in and of itself the spiritual rebirth, but rather when we allow are ourselves to be converted, "becoming (God's) sons and daughters". When we decide to let this change take effect and become even "new creatures" we are then born again and apply the redeeming blood of Christ into our lives and can "inherit the kingdom of God". Just something to think about :)
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
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