Hey Family!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! I totally forgot that it was Valentines day until this morning. I love you all! I know that I truly have the best family, and I'm grateful for all the love and support that I receive. I am so grateful that we all share a love for the gospel. I couldn't think of any other ideal situation, than my family being active members of the church. I am so grateful for the thoughts and the prayers that you have for my investigators. We have seen miracles this week, and I know it is because of faith. We had a great lesson with Brenda this week. We took her uncle with us to help us teach her. His name is Huhane and he was just baptized less than a month ago. She is really feeling the spirit, but is in a rough situation. She loves what she is learning, but she also loves her gangster boyfriend. She wishes that he would be interested and come to church, but hes not right now. We told her at our lesson that she would have to move out or get married before her baptism, and she said she would work on it. She really has a desire to get baptized!
We also had a great lesson with Sione! We even moved his baptism up a week because he is doing so good! We taught him the word of wisdom yesterday for the first time, and he told us that he already stopped smoking a week ago! They have to be smoke free for 3 weeks before they can get baptized, so we moved it up a week, because he is already a week ahead! He came to church yesterday and LOVED it!
We also set another baptism date for one of our investigators - Nio Fale'ofa. He is supper prepared, and didn't hesitate to say yes when we invited him. Brenda, Sione and Nio are all scheduled to be baptized on March 12th!
So this past week on Wed, Thur, and Fri, we had a leadership conference in Walnut Creek from 9 am-4 pm. It was along week! It was a total of around 7 hours of driving within the 3 days, but it was really worth it! Bro. Tracy Watson, who is the director of proselyting, trained us. He taught us A LOT! He is going to change the way that our mission works, as we begin to apply his training. He helped us to see that EVERYTHING we teach needs to be focused on the Doctrine of Christ and his atonement. As me and Elder Neiufi have applied what we've learned so far, we have seen miracles! It is amazing how powerful the simpleness of the gospel is. Its all about inviting and helping people gain and strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ, which will lead them to repent. As they make those changes in their life they will be prepared to receive the ordinance of baptism. After baptism we are cleansed by the Holy Ghost and as we continue to have faith and repent each day, He will guide us as we endure. Bro. Watson taught us that if we teach anything more than faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost, then we are not "built upon his rock".
We teach the commandments to help people strengthen their faith and repent. We teach the plan of salvation to help people understand the importance of the atonement. It really made me think about how I teach.
Well family, we have to go! Members are here to pick us up and take us to the city. We are going to run around in the city today!
Love you!
-Elder Cook
No comments:
Post a Comment