Dates

Don't think this is anything like unimportant dates, this is baptismal dates. We had a lot of miracles this week and I would like to tell you all about them, we also had some fun with other things. 

Abhi: Abhi is one of the miracles that we have received this week. He just moved from India last week and is now going to school at BYU-I. His wife has been a member for about 13 years and he, while she was attending BYU-I this past semester, has been taking the missionary lessons over in India. We first got to meet and teach them Monday night. While we were learning about who he is and what he has already learned, he set a baptismal date himself. He suddenly brought it up, we were very very surprised at that moment. After we talked some more, learned about what miracles he had had in getting to the US, he and his wife stopped us. They said that the Baptismal date that they had already set was too far away and moved it up to one week sooner. When we went back later in the week we asked him about some of the reading in the Book of Mormon and he shared his testimony that it is true. He is so ready to be baptized, now we just have to share the lessons. What a miracle


Payton: This was very similar to Abhi. Payton, a niece of a member family in one of the wards of our stake, is prepared. We went over last Wednesday and while we were getting to know her she also set her own baptismal date and said that after going to church for weeks with this family and talking to the Bishop, she had a desire to be baptized. We then taught the restoration. Later on in the week we taught the Plan of Salvation. My companion, Elder Bramwell, in the past has made the diagrams that all primary kids use to learn about the plan of salvation, and we brought those with us to the lesson. She is following commitments and her testimony is growing. Both Abhi and Payton have been prepared and pretty much thrown in our Face (in a good way). This is thanks to some of the obedience and stuffs that we are doing with some programs that have been taught by the Mission President and also the Brethren from Church Headquarters. 

Kriti: Kriti is someone who was baptized this week. When my companion gave her a baptismal interview (she was being taught by the BYU-I sisters) he asked her if we could do anything else for her. She said that she needed someone to baptized her. So even though we didn't know her at all, my companion Elder Bramwell baptized her on Saturday, and i was able to confirm her yesterday. That was an amazing experience and gives me some experience for later on, hehe. 

Good stuff: My personal study this morning has been a lot on following the promptings of the spirit during the day, during pray, during a blessing, and also in Jesus the Christ. One of the best ways to describe some of the things i learned is in the talk The Twenty-Mark Note, by President Boyd K. Packer. It is about Elder Bednar from his missionary days. In Jesus the Christ i have been reading in chapter 22-26 and it sure is a lot of information. But thing i will pick out is the two parables 

First and Second:
Parable of the Friend at Midnight:

“And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say,Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”

 Parable of the Unjust Judge, or of the Importunate Widow:

“There was in a city a judge, which feared not God,neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”l

The wonderful use of these parables was that as is human nature, to finally give in to plead for help so that the person asking will go away, the nature of our God is that he is waiting for us to ask, because he will help us as we do. The whole book is good to read, just might take a while. 

Love you all and ask me questions whenever you want,
Elder Carson Baker

P.S. Do y'all want me to take pictures during the week?