Family and friends,
Another solid week!
It's been pretty exciting lately!! Starting off with a wholesome story - We've been teaching a father and a son. These two are the only ones in their family who are not members of the church. A couple years ago the rest of the family was baptized. But the father chose not to be and one of the sons didn't want to be baptized unless his father was as well. So for the last couple of years he's been waiting. I'm not quite sure what changed in the father but after we had a couple lessons with them he decided to pray about the Book of Mormon and baptism. He said after he had done so he felt peace. Nothing big or super spiritual. But he told us that he was able to sleep well that following night and he felt a good quiet peace. He took that as a sign that baptism was the right thing to do. So he accepted and his son was thrilled as well! All that time with missionaries over this course has helped him build on his testimony that he didn't know he really had. They will be baptized next week and in time the family will be able to be sealed in the temple!
We are also teaching another mother and daughter. They will both be baptized next week as well! They were supposed to be baptized this Saturday but due to some issues in another place that the mother had to take care of which she couldn't control, they were not able to attend sacrament meeting. It was a sad situation that she had to deal with but we expressed our love to them. The mother was at first a little scared because she thought they weren't ever going to be able to be baptized. But we explained to them that it's alright and they will be able to have another week to prepare. They were relieved. There are several others that we are teaching but they are all too many to speak of individually. Yesterday we were able to get a confirmation from eight of them that they will attend sacrament meeting this Sunday. It might be a little packed! One little girl we are teaching is only nine years old. We had a very small lesson on the restoration and she was very pleased with herself that she could understand it. Her father is a less active member and has been for several years. He is also divorced and he thinks having his daughter baptized will bring some extra light into their lives. She is pretty excited but the father only has Mondays off and so we are only able to give one lesson a week. We're not in any rush to place a baptism date for her with all that in mind. It will most likely be later in May. It's just been great to see all these blessings! The last couple weeks we've had most days with six to eight lessons. We see that it's more efficient and effective to have shorter/more lessons throughout the week. When we only use about 10 to 15 minutes, the people are more willing to fit videocalls in their schedule with us because they know it won't take very long. Plus, true conversion comes by being changed by the Savior's atonement and feeling the influence of the Spirit. And people don't need an hour to feel that. It's packed but thrilling! Even though, yes, some days are slower than others and I know I'm less than imperfect. It isn't always easy to maintain good attitudes and I wouldn't want to pretend like it's always simple to just walk through and have motivation to get things done. I still sometimes struggle with things like procrastination on something that seems insignificant. But I know that with the Savior's help I can always do better!!
The stake family history leaders asked for our assistance in a project. They went to us since they're in our ward. They suggested we get the help of all the missionaries so now we're working on getting all the new members from the last year on board with FamilySearch. I'm excited! Even though I don't really know much about how to use it haha. First we just need to help the members create an account and I know how to do that which means I am of help at the moment haha. This is a great way to connect with the members, leaders, and receive refferals!! This was one of my favorite parts to mention!!
Anyway I'm glad that I finally had some time to actually get out a good email!
Take care!
- Elder Markham
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