FAMILIA!
We just had the most insane day of my mission!!! I can hardly even believe what happened. Alright, so it all started on Monday with a family we found. We went to go visit someone else nearby, but contacted them when the other fell through. They let us right in, they’re super nice, and the member daughter was there. I thought the guy was her grandpa but it was really her dad, and he’s awesome. He didn’t understand the importance of marriage so we told him to pray and we’d be back in two days. We got there Wednesday, talked about marriage again and the importance of obeying God’s commandments, but we didn’t get any further. We tried a different approach Friday with part of the restoration and they committed to going to church. We went back on Saturday night to make sure everything was good for Sunday, and the daughter came out to tell us some bad news. They had some concerns about rumors they had heard about our church. Elder Jose and I had the talks on Sunday, so we decided our talks would be focused on the gospel and the Savior, because many of the concerns he had were about Joseph Smith.
So today, we went to pick them up, and guess who was already there with his hair combed and nice clothes on before the rest of the family? The dad!! So everything’s great, he hits it off with a member we brought to walk with us and he’s excited to attend church. So we give our talks and the Spirit was super strong in sacrament and we challenged everyone to follow Christ and be baptized. We finished up about 5 minutes to the hour just enough time to have a song and a prayer. But then a leader shared some last words and guess what his topic is about? The Prophet Joseph Smith. All the missionaries in his room instantly drop their heads and start praying that the investigators hearts will receive the message. So about 30 minutes after the hour, sacrament ends, and we walk over to our investigator (the dad). He’d been pretty ridged in his seat the whole time, but he gave me a hug and said “Hey I loved it! I am staying for the next two hours as well!” I was so happy. We went to principios del evangelo class and he was so intensely involved answering questions and reading scriptures, you would have thought him a member. Then we went to priesthood, and I want you to take one more guess at what the temo was today? Did you say Joseph Smith? Right again! But let me just tell you this, I know that God wants this man baptized. Every single man in that room was inspired with what to say in that meeting. I have no doubt of that. The spirit touched their hearts, and they all took turns explaining our beliefs about the trinity and who Joseph Smith was, and testifying of them. Right before the last prayer was about to be said, the investigator stopped everyone and wanted to stay something. We were worried. But he said, “I’ve gone to a lot of churches in my life, and I’ve never felt good in any of them. But I think I’m going to stay in this church. I like it here and I believe this is the church of the Lord.” I’ve never been so close to jumping out of my chair and cheering in the middle of church before. This man, without knowing it, had just felt the Holy Ghost, recognized it as an answer from God, and acted on that prompting.
I think God knew exactly what he needed to hear. We went over to their house today and put a fecha [baptism date] for them to be married and baptized. I learned a huge lesson today. God knows better than us! Always. He knows us, and definitely knows His children’s’ needs better than we do. While I was stressing about the situation that was happening everything was playing out just how Heavenly Father wanted it to and you know what? My stress didn’t help squat. I think we need to learn to trust our Heavenly Father a little more. He knows what He’s doing. If we don’t like a situation we’re in or a problem or challenge we have, and there’s something we can do to fix it, do it. If not, relax and let Heavenly Father take control. He loves us, and promises not to give us more than we can handle. And one more thing, the Spirit converts, not missionaries. We could have been in that man’s house for a year trying to convince him to be married, and he wouldn’t have even given it a second thought but the moment that the Holy Ghost touches his heart, he was willing to change everything and follow Christ.
We also taught 10 angry people of another faith (at the same time), chased down everyone in a park contacting for a couple hours, ate about 7 meals on the 24th and almost puked, dodged a couple fireworks people threw at us, killed a rat inside the church, and baptized three ninas on Saturday. Awesome week!
Love
Elder Cook
