Well hello there wonderful friends and family!!! This week was seriously the best week of my entire mission, and I mean that with all of the sincerity of my heart. It was truly one in 52 (like one in a million, except I've only been a missionary for like a little over 52 weeks, not a million, so I couldn't put that).
Anyway, I only have like 10 minutes left and still have to send an email to my Mission President, so I'll only have time to tell you about the miracle of this week... you might want to grab some tissues, though.. because I totally cried when this happened. I'll try and tell it like a story.. hopefully there's time for this..
ANYWAY... so, it was Saturday night (two days ago) and we were going over to Katrina's house (the investigator that we have (eternigator) who has been investigating the Church for over a year and wants to be baptized, she just has to quit smoking)... So, are you with me? Saturday night. Eternigator. Nervous for this lesson.
We have been struggling a lot this transfer on what we should teach her and what she needs that will help her to be able to take this next step of baptism, because she has seriously been taught EVERYTHING like 5 times plus a bunch of other random topics. So, Sister Hsiao and I have been praying for her specifically by name every single prayer that we say each day.. Well, just recently we were asking some other missionaries about what we should do, and their advice was to maybe stop teaching her for a while and just hope that motivates her to have a desire to quit smoking. Well, we prayed a lot about that advice and both felt strongly that we weren't supposed to do that, but rather, that we were supposed to challenge her to be baptized on a specific date. Well, she has been put "On-Date" 3 times in the last year, and all of those attempts haven't worked, so we were a little hesitant, and prayed for faith and went forward trusting that Heavenly Father would provide a way for this all to work out since it's what He wants us to do.
Now, back to Saturday night. We walk in and Katrina tells us about how she's been working so hard on her talk that she was giving in Sacrament Meeting on how to connect with her ancestors (in case you were wondering, that's how cool Katrina is.. she is a non-member and she gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and it was so amazing), and she asked us a question about The Spirit World. Well, that ended up going perfectly into us testifying to her of Heavenly Father's love and just how much we've been praying for her and how the inspiration that we received was that Heavenly Father knows she's ready to be baptized.. "not in a year from now (that's what she would always tell us), not in a couple months from now, but like.. soon." So, we told her that to prepare for her being baptized soon, we were going to ask her the Baptismal Interview Questions. So, we did and the Spirit was just SOOOO strong. We told her, "Katrina, we want you to take out your phone, look at your calendar for September or any month after that, and we know that Heavenly Father will let you know, through the Holy Ghost, what day He feels that you're ready to be baptized on." So, she did.. she looks down at her phone for a couple of seconds and says, "the 10th is really sticking out to me.." I say, "You want to know what, Katrina?" She says, "Is that the day that you guys got too?" We had been praying about what day she's supposed to be baptized on, and that date was very evident that it was the one Heavenly Father wanted. SO COOL! So, we tell her it was and she just starts crying, and says, "This morning I woke up and I just had "September 10th" keep running through my mind and it wouldn't go away... I was like... "What's significant about September 10th? There's something significant about the 11th, and the 5th is Seth's (that's her husband) birthday, but there's absolutely nothing significant about the 10th."... and now you guys tell me this.." The Spirit filled the room and we were all in tears. We committed her to be baptized on September 10th and she accepted. Katrina's last cigarette as at 4pm that day, so she can get baptized on the evening of the 10th. Her baptismal program has already been made, she is so excited, and it's posted on her back door so she sees it every time she thinks about smoking.
That lesson was the best one of my mission. It was all a miracle, and I KNOW that it was all the workings of The Lord. He provided the way, and I am so humbled and grateful that He helped me to take part. I know that these miracles are coming from reading The Book of Mormon so fervently this transfer. The Church is true. Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration, and Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet living today. Our Savior loves us, and wants to help us. As we pray to His Father and our Father, help will come.
愛你們 祝你們有美好的一週 (Love you all! Have a great week!), and remember to invite a miracle!
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