Mi querida familia,
A ver, donde debo empezar? We had a great week here in Clinton. We had a baptism yesterday for a nine-year named Aleena. Her mom is a solid member, single mother and such. It was a pleasant experience. What made it interesting was how Aleena literally changed before and after her baptism. Before, she was super nervous, and a little standoffish. But afterwards, you could see how more relaxed and calm she was. She offered to get us root beer floats, and she beamed with the spirit. It was a small reminder for me how the Holy Ghost truly can help us change our nature and be more loving.
As a zone, we got to go to the temple this last week. Oh, how I love the temple! The celestial room is the best environment to meditate and receive enlightenment. I can think clearly and receive calming assurance of the truthfulness of this work. I had a cool insight as well. During the temple session, I was impressed by how the Lord cannot force us to come back into his presence. We have to be actively searching for increased light and knowledge. I am so grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and how it encourages us to not be content with who we are as the natural man, but to aspire to some higher potencial, even to become like Heavenly Father. We are children of God and therefor heirs, and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17).
I think this principle is best exemplified with one of our investigators named Scotty. He is a truth seeker. He is a former Jehova's Witness and has found new knowledge and understanding because of the Book of Mormon. As missionaries, we haven't taught him a lot, he's been able to find most of his answers through study and prayer. It's incredible to see his faith in action; he's not even a member yet and just yesterday hd paid tithing and a fast offering. What a stud!
And here's the best part, this past weekend he actually didn't pass his baptismal interview because of legal issues that he has to sort out first. We were so scared he'd be offended and then harden his heart to the Church...but he didn't! He truly knows this church is true and he is willing to wait out his baptism even if it takes 6 months or even 3 years. The spirit truly does convert.
This week, our companionship has been working on opening our mouths and talking to more people while on our bikes. A lot of our awkward atempts usually don't yield too many results, but we've seen miracles come from it. The biggest miracle I'd say is a change in our attitude. We get more excited to serve, and we feel more successful even if we get rejected.
And then we have experiences like we did last night. Our appointment at 8 fell through, and so we went off to our back-up plan with the thought in mind, "let's go find a miracle".
And we did. We stopped and talked to three people in that last hour. the first one was on his way to another appointment, the second man was preoccupied with getting a ride from some lady from a mission home. Then the third person a lady turned into a miracle. She was walking away from us, when my companion stopped his bike and yelled out after her "Hi how's it goin'?" She turned around and she greeted us back. She didn't start walking away and so we went up and introduced ourselves. We shared a prayer with her, and found out that her husband had been killed a year ago, she was having a falling-out with many of her friends because of their lacivious life-style and she had been pondering a lot in her heart. We offered to share a message with her and she accepted. We entered her home and shared the Plan of Salvation. The discussion turned to a talk about grace and how we are saved by grace after all we can do. It was a great teaching experience, but she mentioned to us how she could sense we were truly sincere about our religion. If we had not been sincere, she would not have let us into her home. She mentioned how she felt peace around us, and how we had answered a lot of her questions. We left her with a Book of Mormon.
Unfortunately, we couldn't set a return appointment because she actually doesn't live at that house very often. Even though she isn't an investigator right now, we were meant to talk with her and uplift her and give her the BoM, which is the best tool to conversion in companionship with the Spirit.
And again, I stress how subtle the Spirit is. We could have easily passed by this lady and never talked to her. I am so grateful my companion followed the spirit to talk to this lady.
Great week!!! We look forward to more miracles this week and also to Zone Conferance.
Love you all. I will call around 5:00 Utah time this next Sunday! I can't wait to talk to you all!!!
Con Amor,
Elder Powley
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