90th week in Spokane

We had, once again, an awesome week! I keep on getting amazed at the blessings that the Lord has been giving us! Last week I mentioned the countryman family. Well, they wanted to learn more about the sacrament. I was excited about that because in order to know about the sacrament, we gotta know about baptism. So we talked with them about baptism and the covenant that we make when we are baptized. We read the sacrament prayer and pointed out the three things that we promise to be willing to do.. Take the name of Christ, Always remember Him, and keep His commandments. The last two are self explanatory, so we focused on what it means to take the name of Christ and why that's important. We drew a diagram of the plan of Salvation on a white board and then drew a straight and narrow path from earth to the Celestial Kingdom, and drew two gates, one at the beginning and one at the end. Then explained that baptism is the gate and the Priesthood is the key for the first gate. We then talked about the second gate and read a few scriptures with them.. we focused on Mosiah five, and also read some verses in doctrine and covenants sections 18 and 45 and then did a role play with them that we were at the gate at the Celestial Kingdom. I know that the way I just explained it sounds confusing, but with it drawn out I promise it makes sense! The spirit was so strong during that lesson and we invited the family to be baptized on July 9th and they said yes!!! It is such a miracle! They are an awesome family and I am so excited to be with them as they make this leap of faith by being baptized! So that was miracle number one. Miracle number two comes from the lesson that we had right before the Countryman's. We actually didn't have time to teach a lesson because Richard was late getting there, but we were able to talk to him for a few minutes. He has been coming to church for a few weeks with his girlfriend, he's 25. He also took the lessons a couple years ago but wasn't ready at that point to be baptized but he says that he's ready now. When we asked him what his expectations are with meeting with us, he said to be reminded about the fundamentals, and to be baptized! So we will be meeting with him on Wednesday and inviting him to be baptized July 9th. Miracle number three is CRAZY! we left our apartment and it was raining, Elder Fordham asked me if I wanted to drive.. I said no, lets walk. So we started walking. There's a Baptist church right across the road from us and there was a guy sitting right next to the front door. Elder Fordham asked me if we should go talk to him. Immediately my mind quoted the white handbook "do not proselyte at or near other houses of worship" so I said can we do that? But we felt like we should, so we went and talked to him and it turns out that he got kicked out of his brother-in-laws house the day before and was homeless, he's 23. So we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and we read the introduction with him and he said that this is what he's been looking for, he said that he felt like the Lord was guiding him to the Baptist church so that we would run into him. So we called our bishop, then took the man to a members home a couple doors down, taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized on July 2 and he said he would. So he met with the bishop and right now he is living with the same member that Ed is living with! His name is Emil. He is a tender mercy of the Lord. He's my same size so I gave him some slacks, a tie, and a white shirt. His backpack was all torn up so i gave him mine. He's an awesome guy, very sincere, very humbled. The Lord lead us right to him and He lead him right to us! Then at church there was a member that came up to us and said that their son, who is not a member, would like to take the lessons, and he was at church with them. so that will be happening this week and hopefully be putting him on date to be baptized on July 9th! I also had a very enlightening study this week. I've been studying about Christlike attributes in Preach My Gospel. I've also had on my mind about living the Doctrine of Christ and what evidences are there to show that. Well, in the first blue box in the Christlike Attribute chapter, there's a question that says how do the first principles of the gospel and Christlike attributes relate? The scripture it gives is Moroni 8:25-26. I read that and it hit me like a ton of bricks... If we are living the doctrine of Christ, the fruits or the evidence of that would be that we are living the Christlike attributes. So as a missionary, to test ourselves if we have the Doctrine of Christ in our hearts, is tested by the Christlike Attribute self test.. along with check your progress. Also, in the teaching skills chapter, in the very first paragraph it says, essentially, that in order to teach with convincing power, we must first have Christlike attributes, and then study the material, and then master your language, and then we can fully rely on the Holy Ghost in our teaching to teach with convincing power. But first and foremost, we gotta master the Christlike attributes. because without it, how can we be Christ's disciples? Without it, how can we have the doctrine of Christ in our hearts?? So Elder Fordham and I have talked to our District leaders and this week we are going to take about ten minutes in district meeting and talk about this so that our missionaries can more fully have the Doctrine of Christ within them. I love this work! I love being an instrument in the Lords hand! I love being a missionary!