November 10, 2009

This week was a great week. The work has been going well and we are gearing up for a lot of baptisms that will happen in the next 7 weeks in our ward. We have been told that it is the faith of the leaders that makes a ward a missionary minded ward.  We are in the middle of a 40 day fast and reading the Book of Mormon before the end of the year in Newport News 1st Ward. We have a lot of members who aren't really getting excited, but those that are, are incredible. We are getting a lot of referrals and with their faith we are finding people who are ready for the gospel.

One thing that I have noticed with members (and all non-members) is that a lot of people still don't understand their purpose in this life. I think that is where actual study comes in versus just merely reading the word of God. When we come to understand why we are here on earth we learn how important the Atonement is and how we could not fulfill our purpose in this life without it.
 
This week went by so fast as they all seem to. We had a BBQ at this park to try and get investigator's too. It turned out pretty good and all 3 missionary companionships had people there. We even found new investigator's and was able to set one of the families we found for baptism yesterday. Turns out the teenage girl used to always go to the Church with her member grandfather when she was little and the dad is a baptized inactive member. AND they've been talking about how they need to find a church to go to. Talk about prayers being answered. We've been praying to find families who are prepared to accept the gospel and be baptized this year. And they also have a 10 year boy too. We have a ton of boys his age, so he will fit right in!

We tracted into this older guy named Tuck a few weeks ago and then met his wife. We really liked them and we all felt that they needed to join the Church. But we weren't able to get an appt with them. We decided last night that we would pay them a visit. We talked for about a half hour, but left without an appt. Afterwards we all talked about how we are positive that they felt the Spirit and know what we are saying is true. They mentioned once that they are too old to change. haha, She's only 65 and seems totally young. But we are going to keep working on them. The scripture about either choosing to be humble or being compelled to be humble keeps coming to mind with them. That makes me super nervous. But we all 3 keep thinking we need to teach them. So I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

In one of the letters that I got when I got my call says that I am called to preach repentance and prepare people for the Second Coming. How interesting. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now it is like holy cow! My purpose as a missionary is to prepare people for the Second Coming of Christ.
Love ya,
Sister Talbot