This week has been interesting. We had some good success as far as teaching and members present at teaching lessons. The only thing missing is we need to find some more solid investigators.
We are teaching a man named Germano. We met him a few weeks ago. He is from Portugal and he is a stud! He has some problems but he has really exercised his faith. He went from smoking 30 cigs to 6 in one day. He was shocked that he cut it down by that much. We fasted yesterday to stop smoking and tonight we are going over to give him a blessing. He really is a good bloke. He is 31 and lives in Windsor and has one child but he doesn’t live with him. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, English, and French. The other day when he didn’t know how to pray I had to try out my Spanish skills. I tried praying in Spanish. He said he understood it. I’m not sure he did. He is set to be baptized on March 27th.
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er man we are teaching named Emiliano is Italian and he is great too. Ya just gotta love that guy! We have been teaching him for a LONG time. We have challenged him to baptism many, many, times but he just feels like he isn’t ready. Last week we fasted with the ward missionaries that he would accept a baptismal date. Yesterday, we taught him. He had run into some anti Mormon material on the internet, so we had to clear that all up, and then somehow that played to our advantage. The lesson started going better and the spirit hit me like a hammer saying, challenge him to be baptized on the 27th of March. It really puzzled me big time. To be honest I hadn’t even thought about giving him a baptismal date.... but the spirit kept telling me to do that. Then scriptures started coming to my mind and so I starting quoting the scriptures. The spirit told me to read them, and told me what to say and how to say it. So I said "Emiliano how do you feel when you read, pray, go to church and see the missionaries?" He replied with something good that described the spirit. I then said " Emiliano the time is now for you to be baptized." We then read another scripture and I said "That same spirit that testified to those people in this scripture, to be baptized is the same spirit telling you to be baptized. The only difference is they acted on it and you’re not. So Emiliano....." I next challenged him to be baptized and he accepted!!! Oh Snap. Point for the Lord!!!! So, keep him in your prayers. He really wants his sister in Italy, who is a member of the Church, to come to his baptism. But he isn’t sure if she can come. His work is crazy too so pray that his work won’t be an issue.
er man we are teaching named Emiliano is Italian and he is great too. Ya just gotta love that guy! We have been teaching him for a LONG time. We have challenged him to baptism many, many, times but he just feels like he isn’t ready. Last week we fasted with the ward missionaries that he would accept a baptismal date. Yesterday, we taught him. He had run into some anti Mormon material on the internet, so we had to clear that all up, and then somehow that played to our advantage. The lesson started going better and the spirit hit me like a hammer saying, challenge him to be baptized on the 27th of March. It really puzzled me big time. To be honest I hadn’t even thought about giving him a baptismal date.... but the spirit kept telling me to do that. Then scriptures started coming to my mind and so I starting quoting the scriptures. The spirit told me to read them, and told me what to say and how to say it. So I said "Emiliano how do you feel when you read, pray, go to church and see the missionaries?" He replied with something good that described the spirit. I then said " Emiliano the time is now for you to be baptized." We then read another scripture and I said "That same spirit that testified to those people in this scripture, to be baptized is the same spirit telling you to be baptized. The only difference is they acted on it and you’re not. So Emiliano....." I next challenged him to be baptized and he accepted!!! Oh Snap. Point for the Lord!!!! So, keep him in your prayers. He really wants his sister in Italy, who is a member of the Church, to come to his baptism. But he isn’t sure if she can come. His work is crazy too so pray that his work won’t be an issue.
It is amazing how much you can grow from adversity. Even when you feel like the very jaws of hell are after you and even when you feel darker than dark, and more alone than you have ever felt. It is amazing how God always keeps his side of the deal if you turn to him. You just have to be patient. Last week was tough; every morning I would cry. I can’t tell you how I felt. I don’t think words can describe how I felt. I would pray and pour my soul out to God for it seemed like hours. I literally felt like Enos and Jacob when they say they wrestled with the spirit. I felt this internal conflict within me. This continued until Saturday. Then on Saturday morning during weekly planning the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it said "SHAMOS" (my mission pres). My heart dropped. I didn’t know why in the heck President would be calling me. I answered the phone and said, “Hello this is Elder White.” President then said "Elder White, this is President Shamo. How are you" Then he said “Elder White I have been feeling like I needed to call you”. At that moment I looked up at the picture of the Savior in our flat and I knew AGAIN, that I am never alone. I poured my soul out to President Shamo for 20 minutes. He and I talked and boy did he make me feel better! What a great man he is. I can’t tell you how much I needed that call. That was truly an answer to my prayers, for the mission president to call me and to know what I was going through. Then for him to feel for me and to just hear him reassure me. I really do love that man.
