Coming Unto Christ in Arkansas: Blinding sunset.

Blinding sunset!

I told you last week that our area book has been pretty empty so we've been doing a lot of finding. While on exchanges and found 4 new investigators as well as 3 more from earlier in the week! I know that as we continue to work hard, that Heavenly Father will bless us. Also yesterday we were teaching a former investigator and towards the end of the lesson, I brought up baptism. I was really nervous because I didn't know how she would respond but I told her that we just wanted to let her know that we are there to help her come unto Christ and that we know one of the ways she can do that is baptism and we just want to let her know that that is where we see things going. She responded by saying that baptism wasn't part of her plans right now... that she loves the missionaries and our message, but baptism isn't what she's thinking about right now. It was sad to hear that, but I know it is good for us to know where she is at. And she can know what we are thinking as well. I know that that is one of the many purposes of baptismal invitations and I am so grateful for them.

Hermana Petty is such a good companion. She loves the people a lot and wants to give them every opportunity possible to accept the gospel and us. We are working on being better at exercising in the mornings. Hermana Petty definitely works hard! Hispanics here are really into fruit waters. They blend up fruit and put it in their water. I don't really like any of it... but I drink it anyway. :)

Our double schedule for exchanges.

We have exchanges every transfer. I found out we would only be doing a blitz with the STLs for a couple of days this time instead of an actual exchange and that made me a little disappointed. Especially because we've been having a hard time with new investigators lately so it was really hard to make double plans. But we did it! We ended up spending a really big amount of time just finding and that turned out to be really awesome. We also fasted during this exchange to be able to find the people Heavenly Father is preparing for us and we found a lot! This week we ended up being able to have 7 new investigators and we found a bunch more potentials and I am so excited about that!

We taught Maria (one of Hermana Macfarlane's recent converts who got baptized last July and their family is inactive now) twice this week and I am so excited about that! The first time was just random and it was amazing that she answered the door because mostly it's just Jose (her brother) that answers the door and we ask if his mom is home and he says no or that she's busy and we ask if he knows when we can come back and he say no and we say okay. But this time she answered the door! And I decided that the old way of trying to make an appointment is obviously not working so we need to teach them one at a time at the door. (There are three of them.) So we talked to her about her Book of Mormon reading and she hasn't been doing it. :( But then I showed her the big 5 and we did it with her and I thought it was cool. The Big 5 is something I made up with Hermana Macfarlane for the youth. It's 5 steps that they can take to read their scriptures every day and it only takes about 5 minutes. These are the steps:

1. (About 5 seconds) create a spiritual environment

2. (About 30 seconds) Say a prayer

3. (2-5 minutes) read 5 verses

4. (About 1 minute) Apply/think about what you've learned

5. (About 30 seconds) Say another prayer.

I thought it was cool because Hermana Macfarlane made it up with me and then I ended up using it on her recent convert. Then we set up an appointment with her for Thursday and I went with Hermana Thornton on exchanges and she was outside and we talked about how our purpose is to help her come unto Christ and how Hermana Macfarlane and Hermana Lewis helped her do that through baptism and confirmation and we're going to do that by helping her have eternal life/go to the temple. Then we talked about scripture study/praying/coming to church every week and I really hope that happens. I really would love it if they were reactivated!

The question I studied for my exchange goal this time was how can I help people learn how to repent because Moroni 8:25 says, "the first fruits of repentance is baptism." I learned that besides teaching the steps of repentance, I can always testify of repentance and the Atonement and testify of its healing power. Then I was studying commitments because when we invite people to do something, we are inviting them to repent and I read in Preach my Gospel, "Some of those you teach will lack the faith to keep commitments," and when I read that, I knew that this is a problem for a lot of the people we teach. I think a lot of them just don't have the faith that keeping a certain commitment will help them and will bring them blessings so they don't do it because they have no motivation. That makes me sad for them, but I know that I need to follow the Spirit to be able to help them. I don't know why they lack the faith to keep a commitment or what their concerns are, but the Spirit does and that's why I need to rely on him. That's why it's so important for me to be exactly obedient - so I can be as worthy as I possibly can to have the spirit with me.

President Wakolo asked us to send him a picture of us in front of the church we attend.

We decided to take pictures in front of as many churches we can so we can show you for real how crazy it is here in the south. Two of them are across the street from each other and there are so many more that we haven't even gotten to yet!

Crystal Shrine Grotto

Some guy did these sculptures in a man made cave in the 1940s and they are all about Christ's life. The best part is that the whole thing is in the middle of some random cemetery. It's just kind of weird. lol