Let's start with the greatest miracle ever - We have someone getting baptized in 2 WEEKS!!! His name is Shane Kirkland and he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. He came to church last week with the Black family, they gave him a Book Of Mormon, he read the first 11 chapters, and instantly knew that it was true and couldn't get baptized soon enough!! Honestly, he might have gotten baptized this week if it hadn't been for the fact that he had Word of Wisdom problems before. He went from smoking a pack a day (about 20 cigarettes) to nothing in 2 weeks!!! And without us even saying anything, cause the first day we met him was the first day he had gone without a cigarette the whole day. The day before he had had half of one. I was just amazed. And he's an incredibly fast learner! We went through 4 lessons with him Sunday afternoon in just over an hour. He's so great!!! And what's better, he's the theater teacher at the high school and has been teaching there the past two years. And he's only 21. If I weren't on a mission, I'd want his life. He's so cool. But let's be real, anyone involved in theater is pretty great ;) And he passed his baptism interview!!! YAY!!!!! I never thought I'd be the person to say that as a missionary I met and baptized someone in 2 weeks, but now it's happening! Heavenly Father has truly been working with Shane for a while to get him to this point. And it's so amazing. It's funny, some missionaries hear about this and say things like "wow, you're so good!" or "wow, you must be an incredible teacher" but I have to say that everything goes to Heavenly Father here. We did absolutely nothing, it was ALL the Spirit. Missionaries never convert anyone, it's always the Spirit. I'm just so thankful I get to help Shane learn and grow and love the gospel!!
That's the biggest news of the week.... We've been on cloud nine ever since it happened. First lesson with him on Wednesday we set his baptism for January 29th at 5:30 pm. We weren't even planning on having our first lesson with him til Sunday. So it was so cool. And now we're going to exceed our monthly goal for baptisms in the month of January! We were going for 0, and now it's 1!!! Can you tell that we're excited???? :D
We were in a trio the majority of last week. Some things went down in Aztec 2nd ward and it resulted in us having an additional Sister for a time! Sister Kimberling is fantastic and we really enjoyed our time with her. Plus, she had some fantastic CD's that we got to listen to. Gentri is a new favorite. As well as Vocal Point's Lead Thou Me On. And the Piano Guy's Christmas CD. If anyone feels so inclined to send a few CD's this way I wouldn't complain in the least... ;)
We also went on 2 exchanges which was fun. This time around I was with Farmington YSA Sisters and they are just wonderful :)
We also had Zone Conference! And Sister Ledford and I instructed a role-play on companionship study. It went well, especially with the fact that we had little to no time to prepare with all the exchanges we've been on. Poor Sister Ledford is hardly ever in our area anymore. Hopefully it won't be too bad this next transfer!! :D We should be staying together in Flora Vista/Aztec 1st, but we'll find out Saturday night for a definite answer.
And guess what! We won 3rd place in vehicle inspections!!! :D That was pretty great! It wasn't first place, but we'll get that next time. I'm just a tad too competitive here... and we've learned that when you're competitive you're prideful... so I'll be working on that.
Our miles this month are pretty shot. Thank heavens we're given more miles than we actually need since I'm a Sister Training Leader! Cause there was a day this week where we drove more than 100 miles. Which is really bad as we try to do around 30 every day. However, we were needed at the Colorado border, Bloomfield, and Farmington that day. So we went about 20 miles in 3 different directions. It was crazy.
But sadly, we can't have a perfect week. We had a huge heartbreak yesterday when Blake told us that his mother wouldn't give him permission to be baptized. He's on date for February 13th. And he was so so so sad :( We're still praying for him and that his mother's heart will be softened. Cause Blake really has made some fantastic changes in his life since he's found the gospel. Hopefully he doesn't get too discouraged here and will keep going forward with learning and growing. We love him so much. He's almost 17, so maybe it'll just have to wait til he's 18 for him to be baptized. Thankfully he did have one bright spot yesterday! The ward bought him a Quad with his name engraved on it. He was just overjoyed and couldn't let go of them. At least there was one up.
Well, that's roughly it for our week. I hope everyone is doing well!!! I love you all with all my heart!!!
Love,
Becca :)
No comments:
Post a Comment