In other news, it's our bike week! We get the car back on Wednesday, but for right now, Sister Abril and I are reliant upon our trusty bikes. I'm getting a great workout everyday, and I'm learning my area faster than I would have in a car!
However, a problem with being on bikes is being unable to hide from the rain. One day, while we were pedaling around the coast, we looked to the sky and noticed that it was becoming gray and menacing. We quickly decided to book it home, and we raced through Biloxi's sidewalks as thunder growled overhead.
I thought this was going to be a wonderful thrill. I wanted to prove we could beat this storm before it beat down on us. I was determined to get home perfectly dry -- but it seems that Heavenly Father had another idea.
The rain began pouring not even a mile into our trek home. We quickly swerved underneath a bank's ATM drive-through. We sat on the concrete and took some photos while we waited for the rain to let up. I was grateful to have a shield from the rain, although I knew we'd have to start biking again eventually.
We are also blessed to have kind elders who gave us a ride home, though. Thank you, elders!
Sister Abril and I have been trying to work our hardest to maximize the Biloxi area. I am blessed to have a companion who is willing to talk to everyone, loves everyone she sees, and seeks to work according to the needs of those she teaches. She has an amazing gift for diligence, and all she desires is to bring others closer to Christ. I am so grateful for her, and I know she's going to do great things in the future! And for right now, she's especially going to do great things for Biloxi!
This week, Sister Abril and I have been focusing on setting someone with a baptismal date. Whenever we ask a person to be baptized, we set them with a goal date; a day for them to have in mind to be able to take all the lessons, gain a testimony, and feel ready to be baptized by the correct Priesthood authority.
We have one particular investigator whom we met tracting that we both felt needed a baptismal date. She's the sweetest girl ever, with a big heart for her family and for God. From the moment we met her, she's told us that our visits leave her feeling happier, better, with more energy. And at this past lesson, we had the opportunity to take a couple of Young Women with us.
Their testimonies filled the room with the Spirit. They bore solemn witnesses of the scriptures, that Heavenly Father loves us, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Our investigator had a huge smile on her face, and she told us that everything we said just "felt good." I couldn't help but smile, too. The Spirit was strong, and everything seemed to just be going perfectly.
In her dim house, decorated with baskets of to-be-folded laundry, photos from her childhood -- in a place that already invited the warm embrace of the Spirit, we invited this lovely woman to be baptized.
And she said yes.
My dearest friends and family, prior to this momentous occasion, Sister Abril and I had been inviting others to be baptized at doorsteps; in every conversation we had, we tried to steer it to baptism. While that is not the end result, it is a necessary step on the path to eternal life. I am here to give people the greatest they can achieve, not the minimum they already have. I am here to offer them the greatest gift God has to offer, and they cannot accept it if I do not offer it to them.
At church on Sunday, one of the girls we'd taken with us walked up to the pulpit to bear her testimony like we tend to do on fast Sundays. While she nervously fiddled with her hands, she told the congregation of the experience she'd had at our lesson, and she then announced, "I've decided that I am going to go on a mission."
My heart warmed, and I couldn't stop smiling the whole day. What a blessing! Even if our investigator doesn't get baptized; even if things don't work out the way we'd planned, a girl is going to serve the Lord when she turns nineteen. She needed to feel the Spirit to make that decision.
All things happen for a reason, brothers and sisters. I know that we are placed in the paths of others for all kinds of reasons; we are their friends, their family, and their teachers. We are here to offer them celestial blessings, and they are relying on us -- and you -- to help them get there.
I know that my Savior lives. His Church has been restored to this earth today, and that Church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that the work in which we are engaged is the most important work on the earth today. There is nothing I would rather be doing than serving the Lord.
How can you serve Him this week?
I love y'all. Have a good week.
Godspeed!
Sincerely,
Sister Rose
 |
| This is Gigi, the dog of someone we're teaching. She made a home on Sister Abril's bag while we were teaching! |
 |
| We did service for a family moving out and the elders got a little carried away with paint! (Elder Paxton and Elder Hughes) |
 |
| (Elder Paxton and Elder Hughes) |
 |
| Rain, rain, rain! |
 |
| Rain, rain, rain! |
No comments:
Post a Comment