Monday, January 23, 2017

Baptism!

The week here was super interesting. On pday last week, because it was MLK day, we played basketball with the priests and the Howard family. While we were playing, which we weren't really even playing that hard, Elder Pinkston got knocked in the head and got a concussion. That kind of slowed us down a little bit, but he is doing better now. Other than that, we had a bunch happen this week. Interviews with President Tateoka were on Friday, so that went well. I love talking with him and Sister Tateoka. They are awesome. They really want to help missionaries learn obedience so that when we go home we will be able to live the gospel no matter what is thrown our way. 

We had a temple trip scheduled with our friends Aishia and Brian for a couple of weeks now. A couple days before the trip, we found out that the member that was going to go with us had to work. That was a bummer, but we thought maybe we would be allowed to go up with just Aishia and Brian. We asked the zone leaders Friday morning and they got back to us on Friday night around 10 and said that we had to have a member. We were kind of stuck. Brother Graham was going to be busy the next day, but we texted him and asked what he thought we should do. He called us around 1030 and told us that Sister Graham would go up with us. That was such a miracle! Literally 11 hours before we were taking this trip, she volunteered to come. It was a great example to us of being a willing servant of the Lord. It was really cool and the temple trip turned out to be awesome! They really enjoyed it. The Portland temple has an Atrium in it that anyone can go in, so they really enjoyed the Spirit that was present in there. 
Sunday evening was Nicole's baptism! It went almost flawlessly! It was cool because in our morning meeting with Brother Graham, we got a text from President asking when the baptism was because they wanted to attend, so he and Sister Tateoka came to the baptism which was amazing! The Spirit at the baptism was really strong! We invited Aishia to come watch, and she told us afterwards that between the temple trip, church, and the baptism she was really starting to recognize the Spirit. 

Nicole's journey has been amazing. Since the 18th or 19th of December when we met her, she read the entire Book of Mormon. She finished the day before her baptism. It was such a testimony builder to me about how the Book of Mormon can truly change us. She made a comment to us that the Book of Mormon has really changed her and she is so happy for it. Now she is baptized, has the gift of the Holy Ghost, will be working towards going to the temple soon  and doing baptisms for the dead, and continue on her progression in the gospel. It has been so amazing to witness. 

One thing that I am noticing is huge for all of us is real intent. Moroni 10:4-5 says:

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Real intent is so important. When we pray, when we read our scriptures, when we seek revelation at church, it is SO important that we act on the answers that we receive. If we don't, then those answers are going to come less and less frequently. It is definitely something that I am working on a ton right now and hopefully I will continue to improve at it. Heavenly Father wants to help us be happy but if we won't take His advice, then why would He want to give us any. 

Here's a picture of the Pinewood Derby we helped with. 


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