4/15/2024

Baptism X2! ZONE CONFERENCE! Yep another Baptism this weekend so that's awesome!

Monday

It was a simple P-Day. Just some games at the church. We were hopping to see the partial eclipse here but it was a cloudy and kinda rainy day. No eclipse was seen by me. But that is OK. We went over the Baptismal interview questions with Gisel and King. They were ready for it. That started off the evening great. Then the guy we had set up for the evening was not at home. We called him and he was at a game for his grandson which is also good to do. So we had the evening open to try and visit people. Kinda made it boring that evening. 

Tuesday

ZONE CONFERENCE! It took up almost the whole day but it was really good. There are things I will be trying to apply to my missionary efforts such as the SITCOM Approach! For this approach we summarize the lesson. This helps make sure our friends know what we just talked about. Then we set the stage for the next lesson by maybe saying the name of the next lesson or Gospel Principles we want to share. Leave them with an invitation to do so we can followup in a normal natural way. And of course followup in that normal natural way. This approach will just help me follow what I already need to be doing as a missionary but seeing it as a SITCOM is super fun. At the end of the day we started an exchange. I was having our wonderful Zone Leader Elder Sanford come to me. I will be leading the area. 

Wednesday

It was a very productive morning. It was a very busy day. We met a few new people to start teaching which is always awesome. There were a few lessons we had. The main reason for this exchange was so we could have Gisel and King's Baptism interviews. They passed so they will be getting Baptized on Saturday! It is so exciting because this is the first Baptism for someone I was actually teaching and put on date. 

Thursday

We got the Baptism all planned and some good lessons. Our friend Tyrin wants to get back to church and wants all of her kids to have church a part of their lives so that will be cool to help them make that happen. Our other friend Odette just needs a ride to church so we just need to figure that out. Someone in her household comes to church and gets a ride with a member so we just need to coordinate that out. In the evening we saw our friends Levis/Roger's. They had a rough week but are doing better now. Our last stop for the day was Deepthi. There were some good lessons and discussions on how we can help our friends today. 

Friday

Kinda a boring day. A main thing we of course invited people to was the Baptism. We did meet with a recent convert, Joseph. He is super funny. We are helping him get ready to receive his Patriarchal Blessing. It just made me think I need to read mine more. I invite all of you to read yours more if you have it. If you haven't gotten it yet and are old enough, I invite you to pray and reach out to get that set up. There is another recent convert and his wife can be Baptized as soon as she gets a new job so she can come to church. They have an interview coming up so that will be really awesome if she can get it. Keep her in your prayers so she can get that job. The day was kinda boring but there were these visits that made it fun. 

Saturday

Baptism! The font in this building fills up really fast so we didn't have to arrive as early as we did. It was 5 minutes till we were supposed to start the Baptism and it was only us and the Senior Missionaries the Robert's. After that a few people came in from the ward. Then Gisel texts us she is 15 minutes away because of traffic. That did put me at ease because I knew she was on her way. The Baptism went great! After we just cleaned up. The rest of the day was just a normal Saturday. Trying to invite people to church. We met someone who has met with missionaries before back in Oklahoma. That was cool so we got their number so we can meet with them again. 

Sunday

At church I got to confirm both Gisel and King members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints! Her youngest son has a lot of energy so that made Sacrament meeting really interesting. She is super ready. Now we just need to get more members involved and help her get to the Temple! 

It was a good week. I started re-listening to the conference talks. Elder Holland is definitely worth listening to again and really looking closely at what he says. This work is urgent. We need to all work together to move the work of the Lord forward!