Milagres abound here in Oakdale.
Gwen's baptism went smoothly and spirit-filled. She was so grateful for the support she had from the branch members, as none of her family came to it. She got to be dunked twice because her toe popped up! haha but she said she felt as light as a feather. It is so amazing to be part of the change in people's lives, and to know these great children of our Heavenly Father. Gwen has such great influence on people; through her example she will most definately be a missionary for the Lord. Our little branch is growing! Another little miracle happened on wednesday, our transfer day. We had recieved a referral from church headquarters and had set up an appointment to meet this little family. Chastity, Roland and 3 yr old Hayden. Chastity told us how she discovered mormon.org. (ya'll if you havent checked out already, do it!) She's a memeber of a forum for mothers, I think like one Leda has been on? for all mothers of different situations. Anywho she joined one for LDS moms cuz she'd been curious about what we believe. She liked somethign one woman had said and clicked on her profile, which took her to her blog. there she saw a link for mormon.org and there she read about things that she's passionate about, like families and modesty and LOVED what the church has to say about those things. We met with them and taught them about the restoration, focusing on how it blesses our families. the spirit was so strong, and they both accepted an invitation to be baptized. We are so excited to get to meet with them on saturday; they live at the futherest region of our area, so we actually did a phone lesson about church attendance this morning. (Acutally Sister Hislop and Sister Aka did while I did language study. lol) Satan sure works against us thats for sure; they hadnt read anything yet but we got Chastity re-commited and excited to study. Another amazing thing that happened sunday that I definately will call a miracle--
So we met this fella in Pitkin (Another outta the way part of our area) a few weeks back and had taught him a mini mixture of the restoration and plan of salvation. We were suprised he listened to us, because he is the one out of the thousand down here that isnt religious. We havent been able to even get him to pray with us or let us pray (he's got some resentment issues with God, obviiously) Eh told us that he only listened to us because he could feel how sincere we were, we werent just putting on a show. he likes us, he even lent us his favorite CD of christain music Tyson Tyrell or something like that. Or maybe Tyrell Thompson? anywho..we didnt listen to it of course, against the rules but we had someone else tell us about it so he wouldnt be offended. haha. He said he'd better get it back, that he might even come to church to fetch it. We called him last week and invited him but he didnt show. Saturday night I decided to invite him again, I left a message telling him to come and make our day. I was honestly shocked when I saw him walk into the chapel. He even said he'll try to make it next week. He needs to realize his relationship with God; if you read about prayer in the bible dictionary it talks about the relationship between understanding you are a child of God and your desire to pray. Its sad when people have forgotten that they are children of God.
God has surely been gracious to me this week, through all my weakenesses, He allows me to be part of His work, and see such amazing things. And to realize that there are miracles. Sometimes its easy to chalk it up to coincidence, but things really arent that way here.
Hope ya'll are having a fabulous week.
love
sister smith
* * * * * * * * *
Gwen's baptism went smoothly and spirit-filled. She was so grateful for the support she had from the branch members, as none of her family came to it. She got to be dunked twice because her toe popped up! haha but she said she felt as light as a feather. It is so amazing to be part of the change in people's lives, and to know these great children of our Heavenly Father. Gwen has such great influence on people; through her example she will most definately be a missionary for the Lord. Our little branch is growing! Another little miracle happened on wednesday, our transfer day. We had recieved a referral from church headquarters and had set up an appointment to meet this little family. Chastity, Roland and 3 yr old Hayden. Chastity told us how she discovered mormon.org. (ya'll if you havent checked out already, do it!) She's a memeber of a forum for mothers, I think like one Leda has been on? for all mothers of different situations. Anywho she joined one for LDS moms cuz she'd been curious about what we believe. She liked somethign one woman had said and clicked on her profile, which took her to her blog. there she saw a link for mormon.org and there she read about things that she's passionate about, like families and modesty and LOVED what the church has to say about those things. We met with them and taught them about the restoration, focusing on how it blesses our families. the spirit was so strong, and they both accepted an invitation to be baptized. We are so excited to get to meet with them on saturday; they live at the futherest region of our area, so we actually did a phone lesson about church attendance this morning. (Acutally Sister Hislop and Sister Aka did while I did language study. lol) Satan sure works against us thats for sure; they hadnt read anything yet but we got Chastity re-commited and excited to study. Another amazing thing that happened sunday that I definately will call a miracle--
So we met this fella in Pitkin (Another outta the way part of our area) a few weeks back and had taught him a mini mixture of the restoration and plan of salvation. We were suprised he listened to us, because he is the one out of the thousand down here that isnt religious. We havent been able to even get him to pray with us or let us pray (he's got some resentment issues with God, obviiously) Eh told us that he only listened to us because he could feel how sincere we were, we werent just putting on a show. he likes us, he even lent us his favorite CD of christain music Tyson Tyrell or something like that. Or maybe Tyrell Thompson? anywho..we didnt listen to it of course, against the rules but we had someone else tell us about it so he wouldnt be offended. haha. He said he'd better get it back, that he might even come to church to fetch it. We called him last week and invited him but he didnt show. Saturday night I decided to invite him again, I left a message telling him to come and make our day. I was honestly shocked when I saw him walk into the chapel. He even said he'll try to make it next week. He needs to realize his relationship with God; if you read about prayer in the bible dictionary it talks about the relationship between understanding you are a child of God and your desire to pray. Its sad when people have forgotten that they are children of God.
God has surely been gracious to me this week, through all my weakenesses, He allows me to be part of His work, and see such amazing things. And to realize that there are miracles. Sometimes its easy to chalk it up to coincidence, but things really arent that way here.
Hope ya'll are having a fabulous week.
love
sister smith
* * * * * * * * *
Oi! Tudo Bem?!
Estou muito animado por este proximo semana! "Por que" voce pergunta? Eu respondo, "por que nao?!"
This weekend we had a baptism for Gwen! SO AWESOME! these are the pictures.
* * * * * * * * *
My companion, sister aka was trying to teach us a dance from her village in the ivory coast.
No comments:
Post a Comment