Oct 22

Hello everyone,

This week was a true blessing for my companion and I. Lately, we have been struggling to find new people who are interested in our message. But, last Sunday a man came to church with a member. His name is Oscar and he is really nice. He came looking for some guidance in his life and he heard that by living in accordance with our Gospel standards you can receive blessings. Well, he is absolutely right haha.

So we met with him on Monday after pday. And we taught him the Restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to pray about Joseph Smith. Then we met with him again on Wednesday. Tuesday, I had exchanges with Elder Briggs, our District Leader. I love being around Elder Briggs. He has become another best friend added to my long list of friends. haha. He really helps me feel the Spirit. He knows how to work really hard, but have a lot of fun while doing it. I learned a lot from him that day. So after exchanges, I mistakenly forgot my wallet in Woodburn, which had my license and my Tiwi card. So Elder Robinson and I got to walk around all day. In total, we walked about 15 miles. We were dead tired by the end of the day but it was all worth it.

We called to cancel our appointment with Oscar because he lives in Stayton, which is a 30 min drive from our house and there was no way we could have walked there. But, he said he found a job here in Salem, and that he would meet us at the chapel to be taught. The Lord blessed us there. We were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation and at the end, he told us he wanted to make it to the Celestial Kingdom. It was so cool!

Thursday was weekly planning and we got a good planning session in. Friday we had a district meeting and also did some more finding. Saturday we were able to meet with Oscar again and teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We really emphasized baptism and extended the Baptismal invitation. He said he needs to be baptized, but wanted to pray about it first. He came to church the next day and I asked him how his reading and praying went and he just smiled at us and said, it was really good. We are meeting with him again tonight to set an official baptismal date. When you work hard and just put your trust in the Lord, the Lord will bless you. I truly have a testimony of that. Also, the talk that was given during sacrament meeting may have been the most spiritual talk I have ever heard in my life. It truly hit me deep. Which also shows that the promise made in Ether 12:27 is true when the Lord promises he will make your weak things become strong. I'm not very good with the whole Spanish language thing, but I am able to understand almost everything. 

I was reading and I don't remember where I got this quote, may have been a talk or something but it says this, “After baptism, all members slip off the path—some of us even dive off. Therefore, exercising faith in Jesus Christ, repenting, receiving help from Him, and being forgiven are not one-time events but lifelong processes, processes that are repetitive and iterative. This is how we endure to the end. “ (Elder Dale G. Renlund, "Choose You This Day". October 2018)

We all have the chance to come back. So do it.

I love you all