Easter + Baptisms = Amazing Week

This last week has been a great one overall. It started when I went on exchanges with a zone leader, Elder Solomon. He has been out a lot longer than I have and so I knew it was going to be a great day. The bad thing was that we had no lessons planned because we are building an new area. So we started out street contacting and it was incredible! We got a few potential investigators  and planted 6 Book of Mormons with some appointment times when we could drop by. But it didn't stop there. The next day we had an appointment fall through and so we decided to head over to one of our previous potential investigators and see if they were home. They ended up being home and they also let us in. We shared the first lesson and they really liked what we said. The funny thing was that they wanted us to come back before we even asked for a return appointment. Their reasoning behind it was that they thought we were sincere and honest. This is music to our ears!  My companion and I felt prompted to extend a baptismal invite and so we did just that. They said yes!!! On the first lesson haha it was amazing. As Elder Doyle and I continue to teach as a companionship we become more unified and teach very powerfully. I feel it every time we teach.

 

 You think that would be the highlight of the week but it wasn't. We had two baptisms and then on Sunday two confirmations and a baby blessing followed by a legendary talk by a youth speaker. Its crazy because usually youth speakers don't give long or deep talks but this one did and he did it with the Spirit. He spoke about how he really couldn't think of a reason why God existed. He was searching for that answer because he didn't want to just believe what his parents believed. So he searched but he never found an answer until one night when his parents told him to read and pray. So he did exactly that but he didn't receive an immediate answer. It was later when he laid on his bed and closed his eyes. He explained these flashbacks of events in his life that were amazing but instead of the original faces he saw God and Jesus Christ. And then he remembered when he almost drown, and his mom jumped in and saved him but instead it was Jesus. In the midst of this awesome experience a member named Brother Hopper had a prompting to ask this deacons father (which isn't a member) to be baptized. The father felt strongly that he should pray about it and that we the missionaries should come over and give him the lessons. This man has been going to church for years but nothing has worked to help him become fully convert. 

This Easter weekend was an amazing one. If I could continue to have days like that past few, I would be carried by the Spirit for hours on end. Everyday I'm out on my mission I continue to realize how much God blesses us and how the Atonement of Christ changes the lives of people willing to submit to His gospel. Im proud to be a Mormon and a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Love you!

E. Archibald