This past week was wonderful, and next week is going to be amazing. The temple open house has come to a close here in Idaho Falls, and we have Zone Conference this upcoming Wednesday, so it will be an exciting week. Thank you for your emails and for your constant support!
Olivas: We had two appointments with the Olivas family. The first one was the first half of the plan of salvation and after we taught up to the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it is the center of the plan of salvation and the thing that holds it all together, it got wayyy off topic. It wasn't bad, but it was unexpected. It got into a discussion on Tattoos and piercings, along with obedience, and then their 3 year old needed a priesthood blessing, so we gave him one.
Then we had cheesecake for dessert. Later in the week we had another appointment with them where we read and studied the book of Enos in the Book of Mormon. Sis. Olivas' younger sister wasn't there when we initially taught the restoration, and so reviewing the need to gain a witness by the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God, and by knowing that you can know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a prophet on the earth today. Prayers can be answered, and although it takes quite a bit of effort, prayers of faith are answered in the timing of God's will.
Jaclyn: Jaclyn was a new investigator that we met last week and we had our first sit down lesson with her. It was in the home of our ward mission leader and it was wonderful. We taught her first of the nature of God, that "22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible asman’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body offlesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so,the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." and how He is a father to us, and loves us with a perfect love, and knows us perfectly and knows what is best for each one of us. After that we taught about prayer and how we increase our relationship to God and how the Book of Mormon is a keystone in having a firm testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. She was very very open and because of her past she already believes that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It will be exciting to see her change and progress as she has her heart open to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Thursday night Splits: On Thursday night we had too many appointments for us to handle alone, so we called up two members of two different wards that we work in and I worked in Sageview with Bro. Nukaya. Our first stop was the Barbiari's. The have been active, but as she went through the temple open house and felt the spirit that is present in the House of the Lord, all of her questions and doubts were answered, and she now wants to work as hard as she can to make it back to the temple after the re-dedication. We followed up on her reading of the Book of Mormon because before she was struggling to read daily, and she read up to 1 Nephi 11!!! She only missed one day in the week and a half since we last visited. They have a temple date are we are going to teach them the lessons and build that foundation of Faith in the Savior, the Prophet, and the Restoration. After that we stopped by an appointment or two and before the last one for the night, when Elder Velarde was going to rejoin us, we were waiting a second for him to get there, and so Bro. Nukaya and I started talking. His son is part of the BYU Folk Dance group, and I asked him if it was the same one that performed at Nauvoo last year, and we then found out that it was, and that both of us had visited Nauvoo within a week last year and they also watched their son's group. Our last appointment that night was with Stephanie, and it was okay. We will have to see.
The Elect: On Tuesday for district meeting, after we talked and were taught by Elder Taylor and Crosby on Faith and Repentance, we had a discussion that was all about the Elect. The scripture that explains something we do as missionaries and needs to be our focus is described in this verse in the Doctrine and Covenants Section 29:7- And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts;. The elect are those that listen and do. There are those that do not really listen, and those that don't really do, and without those things, there is no way that someone can at this time have the faith sufficient enough to be ready for baptism, or have repented enough to make a covenant with God to keep his commandments, to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ, and to always remember him. Since Tuesday, we have met many people that may have been willing to let us in, but were not elect, and so we do not teach. We received a promise from Bro. Littlefield during the mission tour that we will have the elect show up, if we show God that we can tell the difference. It has been really amazing to find those that have their hearts prepared to accept the Gospel and listen to the spirit and do what God asks them.
Stake Conference: We had stake conference yesterday and one of the great things about it was the amount of talks that were given on the temple. It was in most part because there has been the open house here for the past month, and in two weeks we have the re-dedication, but it was amazing what I learned. One of my favorite talks was from our Stake President about the simple things that we can do to receive the major promised blessings. Each one of us can look back at talks and promises given by Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ about finding ancestors and bringing them to the temple, and it is so simple to do. We should not be like Namann, who almost because of the easiness of the way, lost out on the promised blessings that come from following the Lord's called and chosen servants.
Saturday: Saturday was pretty busy, but also a little bit rough. We had 6 appointments for the whole day, about 4 of them were with investigators. 4 out of the 6 appointments throughout the day fell through, but one of the appointments that did go through went wonderfully. It was Lucas, who I talked about maybe a month ago. We have had a lot of appointments cancel with him over the past couple of weeks, but we were finally able to follow up with him. We reviewed the restoration and helped him overcome his fear of studying the scriptures because he doesn't want to fall after learning, and is comfortable not having that duty. he wants to change, to be a better husband, a better father, a better man, and as he and each one of us comes unto Christ and become partakers of his atonement, we will have change of heart and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. He wants to change and he knows the way, and he will read in the Book of Mormon and pray unto his Father in Heaven.
Studies: It is a favorite scripture of many, but something new about stood out to me today. Helaman 5:12.
if men build they cannot fall. You have to build on that foundation of Jesus Christ, with the scriptures, with prayer, with modern prophets and apostles, with the priesthood, with service, and love, and charity, and virtue, etc. And each time that you build upon that sure foundation, the foundation will become stronger, which is amazing.
that is how we grow our faith and the importance of Faith in Jesus Christ.
It was a long one today, but hope that you all have a wonderful week.
Love y'all, and no pictures again this week sorry!
Elder Baker
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