August 29, 2011 Ricardo Baptism

Yesterday we had a baptism! This week we were teaching our investigator family and we found out that their 11 year old son was reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, went to several youngmen´s activities, and has been going to church consistently for a couple weeks. This last Sunday was his third assistence (need 3 to baptize) and we felt that he should be baptized this week. So we asked his family and they said alright and then his mom told him and he yelled "Yipeee". Apparently he was asking his mom already if he could be baptized or what to do to be baptized beforehand. Even though he baptized solo we felt that it would be a help to the family and to the ward to have the baptism. SO what happened? Tomorrow the mom and dad (who´s already a member) are going to sacar turno to get married and the date will be the 9th of september, baptism the 10th, confirmation the 11th, and the sister missionaries in the center were talking with his other brother of 15 and he accepted a baptismal date for the 17th of september. So many blessings from the Lord.

Which brings me to what I´ve been studying this week. We finally saw Presidente again and had our interviews. He told me in my interview that I needed to study in Preach My Gospel chapter 6 about patience and diligence. I did so and I found out that the Lord blesses us with tests of patience in the mission before he blesses us to find investigators to build our love for them because if we don´t have enough patience with them when we find them we aren´t going to have the love we need to have to help them through all the trials that lead to baptism. It´s also to help build our faith so that we can believe that the Lord will bless us in our afflictions. Then I was studying about diligence and I learned that by being diligent in our work we are showing the Lord we love him and that we love the people we work for. This corresponds to the two commandments Christ taught us, love they GOd and love they neighbor. Therefore if we are not diligent we are not keeping these two greatest commandments and the Lord cannot bless us with miracles. Then I was studying about prayer and I realized that I need to change how I pray. In 3 Nephi 27 Christ comes to the disciples and asks them what they want him to give him. Then in Ether Christ instructs The brother of Jared how to build the boats but that he can´t have windows or fire for light. Then he asks him what he would have him do. I realized that the Lord never once did something for these people that they themselves couldn´t do. That´s how the Lord expects us to pray, to first make a plan and do all we can and know how to do and then ask the Lord humble, acknowledging that we don´t know how to make something happen and acknowledging that He can, to give us a miracle. The brother of Jared knew how to work with metal, so he created rocks and asked the Lord to make them shine because he didn´t know how to do that. That was the faith and miracle of the Brother of Jared, seeing the Lord´s finger was just a side effect of his faith.

Just remember that the Lord loves you dearly and that if you pray to him for missionary experiences and for the courage to speak and to fill your mouth in the moment, know that he will bless you. As Doctrine and Covenants teaches us several times, the process is first open mouth, then filled with Lord´s words.

Love you and say hi to everyone. Tell O-Dawg Che el choripan está pero de diez.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis