Monday, July 21, 2014

Week 49 - 4 for 1

Aloha everyone!
This week was incredible. Johnny, Jibas, Deneise, and Monalinda all got baptized! We worked with them every day this past week up until their baptism and they were just super solid. So thanks so much for al of your prayers for me and them! They don't really speak English because all of them except Deneise just came from the Marshall Islands, so it's been a really good experience teaching them all in Marshallese because most the people we work with we teach in Marshallese because the kids understand gospel concepts better in English. Before the baptism things were super crazy. We were running around trying to get everything and everyone ready, but in the end everything came together and worked out, like it always seems to.
This was really a cool baptism for me because before this all of our baptisms seemed to fall through. Randomly they said they didn't want to take the lessons anymore, or they had family problems where their family wouldn't let them be baptized. Just a bunch of crazy stuff that happened with all of our previous with dates. One sunday I fasted for a baptism. That was the sunday that we talked to Johnny and Jibas and found out that they weren't baptized. So it's just really cool to see the Lord's hand in our lives when we work hard and put His will first.
We also had a really solid lesson with Simba. We taught him the plan of salvation. He said that he's been wondering a lot about those three main questions addressed by the plan of salvation: where we were before we came to earth, why we're here, and where we go after we die. We taught him the whole thing and he stayed really engaged and interested during the whole lesson. We talked to him about how, because our Heavenly Father loves us, he set up a plan for us to be able to return to Him, and that part of that plan was becoming more like His son Jesus Christ and following His example. We invited him to follow Christ's example and be baptized and he accepted! I feel like he's another one of those people that have been prepared for us. He randomly came to church one sunday and now is preparing to be baptized! I've really just seen so many blessings in this work.
Thanks for everything. You guys are the best support system a missionary could ask for. Love ya!
-Elder Merrill

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