Weekly update- 9/27/10

Hey family! How are yall?!

So, I have a little story to share. First of all, the mission has its ups and downs. One of the ups would definentely be when an investigator that you have been working with, comes up out of the water and looks renewed. Other ups would be when you find a person who is really interested in hearing about the Gospel. These definentely are blessings of the mission. But, for there to be good moments, there has to be bad moments also. But my story ends up with a happy ending so its all fine!

We have been working with this one investigator who is a little over twenty years old. He is so interested in the Church and like I said a few weeks ago, I had maybe the most spiritual experience in my life in a lesson with him. He doesnt have too much support from his family, in fact, his grandmother is a devout Catholic and cant stand ¨the mormons!¨ But, he has come to know that the Church is true and agreed to a baptismal date. His date was yesterday. So, we met with him almost everyday this past week to share a scripture or a message with him to give him some support that he needs. At the beginning of the week he was extremely nervous but with each lesson, he got less and less nervous. We had some really Spiritual lessons and the Holy Ghost strongly testified. We were not able to meet with him on Friday because he had an art exhibit downtown in Concepcion so we tried calling him a few times that night, just to check in, but he didnt answer. We didnt sweat it because I felt really good about him and his date. The next day we got a phone call from his fellowshipper who said, ¨he doesnt want to get baptized, and it was nice to know the Church, Chao.¨ We were crushed. We had never been to his house because his family doesnt like us too much but we decided to this time. He wasnt there so we went back to our house. I got on my knees and prayed and pleaded with Heavenly Father for him. I loved him but I still didnt have close to that God-like love that Heavenly Father has for his children. I prayed for that love and it just wouldnt come. All of the sudden I thought of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. At that second, a wave of emotions hit me and I cried like a baby. My pillow was soaked. I really gained that love for him as my brother and I pleaded with Heavenly Father to just let me talk to him once that day. We went through the day and nothing really could go right. Almost all our appointments fell through and we ran out of minutes on our cell phone so we went on a huge hunt to find a pay phone. Basically, it just wasnt one of the best days. We decided to go to his house that night (this is Saturday night, the day before his baptism) and he was there! He came out and we were able to talk with him! I was filled with joy. After talking to him, he told us of his concerns and basically it just came down to all the opposition that he has had to face this past week. A huge part is that his family is not very supportive. We all bore our testimonys together and we all had a few tears in our eyes that night in front of his house. He really felt the love and support that he needed again. He said that he would get baptized the next day. After that, I felt like I was walking through Heaven as we walked to our next appointment.

So, he had picked me to baptize him! I was so honored and excited and would be my first time to be able to perform a baptism. I brought all my white clothes to Church Sunday, ready to go! We got to church, and the our ward mission leader told us that his sister (who is the fellowshipper) got a text that said that he couldnt withstand the opposition and wasnt going to get baptized. I cant express how I felt, again. So, we gave him some space yesterday and didnt see him but today we are going to head over and talk about it. Hopefully he can see General Conference this next weekend and hear and see the Prophet of God.

I said the story had a happy ending! The happy ending is that the Church is true! Its a little hard to see people say ¨no¨ to the blessings of the Gospel but agency is one thing that nobody can take away. I know that this Church is the Church of Jesus Christ and that Heavenly Father loves his children so much that we cant even imagine.

Other than that, everything else is going fine. We worked hard and I can still go to bed feeling like I did all I could to bring others to Christ. That is a wonderful feeling.

Hope all is well in Texas! Love yall and miss yall!

Elder Gregory