Monday, July 16, 2012

The Miracle Baptisms!!!!!!!!

Dear Family and Friends
This last week has been great!!! On Monday we took bikes and just went and tried to find people. When Preparation Day was over we also taught a less active.
Tuesday we had a busy day we had 2 dinner appointments and other lessons. They were all jam packed together so we were just running around like crazy!  
Wednesday we walked and tried to do everything we could to find people because a lot of our appointments have been canceling. So we were out in the 104 degree heat tracting it was pretty successful and we got some return appointments. Then we had mutual and we had appointments at the same time so we did a member split. I went with Hermnao Lopez to go to appointments. What was the miracle about this day is Carmen and Isaac got their marriage license! They still had to have the ceremony for it to be valid so we had to contact the Stake President so he could authorize the bishop to marry them. We weren't sure if that was going to happen. Hermano Lopez and I went to a part member family and they didn't read so we read with them. Then we went to Carmen and Isaac and talked about their baptism. We made the baptism program and they wanted me and Elder Bowes to baptize them!!!!!!! That was cool but I kind of wanted a member to do it so they could be more connected with the ward. They will have other opportunities to get those connections!! 
Then on Thursday we had District Meeting which was really good. We talked about our area and our goals it was really great! Then we went tracting and found 3 families to teach! They all said we could come back and teach them it was super great!!! Then we were, well I was stressing out about the wedding and the Stake President hadn't called our bishop back. So we called the Stake President and he answered the phone and said that our bishop was authorized to do the marriage. We called the bishop and he was surprised that President Esquerra answered the phone.  He said Friday night at 8 he could perform the wedding so that was another miracle. Then we went to Carmen and Isaac to talk about their wedding. They were super excited and said they should have been married 20 years ago! 
Then Friday we had a lesson with Karen and it went good. She is finally reading but still not coming to church. So we asked why and her mom doesn't want her to go alone. We are going to find a young woman from our ward to help friendship her and bring her to church.  Then we had a mission conference and activity. The mission conference was sooo great!! Elder and Sister Kasteller talked to us about how we need to trust in the Lord and have real growth. They also talked about that sometimes we may be down on the mission but really all our struggles and challenges will be for our good and for our growth! Then Elder Hendrickson an Assistant to the President talked about how if we want progressing investigators we have to be progressing missionaries. That will help us so that we can progress with our investigators.  Then Sister Becerra talked about how we need to have faith to find teach and baptize.  Then President Becerra gave a really powerful talk about how sometimes we need to have a big trial to increase our faith. He talked about the widow who fed the Prophet Samuel. After that we then had a discussion of how we need to put the Lords will before our own and we need to have that great faith so that we can find, teach, baptize and double the baptisms! Then we had an activity it was sooo fun!!! We had all sorts of water games a water balloon toss, water kickball and everyone got wet! President Becerra looked for the dry missionaries and told them to come give him a hug while other missionaries got a bucket of water and dumped it on them!! It was funny! Then we had a basketball three point shooting contest. All the Zone Leaders picked the best 2-4 players from their zone. They shot 10 shots and whoever made the most won and guess who won?  It was President Becerra!! He made 8 out of 10 it was cool!! Then we went back to working and we got a few appointments. Then we had the wedding and actually for such short notice we had a lot of members there to support Carmen and Isaac for their decision to get married!!! 
Then Saturday we went and found and did some service by helping a less active with the headlights in his car. Then we had weekly planning.  Then Carmen and Isaac had their baptism interviews. They are so humble, they have been through a lot of hard things. To top it all off on Saturday their vehicle broke down! Hermano Lopez was able to pick them up for their interview so everything still worked out. Elder Alworth the District Leader almost cried because of how humble they are and how willing they are to get baptized. We then had a dinner appointment and did some finding.  
Sunday we had church and we had 4 investigators at church Carmen, Isaac, Patty and Sergio!!! We made programs and invited all the members to the baptism.  We then had a lesson with Patty and Sergio they are close to being baptized as well.  They haven't gotten an answer yet if that's what they should do.  Then we had the baptism it was crazy! We didn't know if there were baptism clothes so we had to go to another ward to get clothes. We picked 3 different jumpsuits for Isaac and thank goodness one of them fit!! The last one he tried of course! Then we had the baptism service, the talks were amazing and the Spirit was so strong! I had the opportunity to baptize Carmen. She said the water was too hot so we ran the cold water and I was in the font trying to mix the water around it was kind of funny to see! Then I had to do the ordinance twice because she didn't go down all the way. The second time she did it was great! Isaac was so funny he wanted to be baptized as soon as he got to the stake center he said estoy listo = I'm ready! They really were so ready and it was a pleasure to teach and to baptize them and to see all the miracles that took place because Elder Bowes and I exercised our faith we saw miracles happen!!! I know that when we are doing everything we can to be faithful we have to act. I know when we are exercising our faith and doing the things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do then we can see the miracles! I love you all so much and I hope you are all having a great summer!
Que les Vaya Bien!
Love, Elder Reisner

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