3 March 2009

Hey Family guess what your praying paid off!

So this week we had a meeting with a former investigator. His name is Petr, what happened with him truly is something that you read about in the Ensign. So he hasn’t had contact with the missionaries for around two years now. Three weeks ago he felt a really strong impression to pray. As he prayed he asked that heavenly father would send him someone that he could talk to about his beliefs. A week after this prayer we called and set up a meeting with him. When we showed up to his house he was very excited and sat us down and began sharing with us how he had prayed for us to show up and then there we were. He began to relate to us everything that had been happening over the past two years,. He talked about how he had been studying the Book of Mormon everyday. He bore such a strong testimony of the book of Mormon that I even felt myself becoming converted to it all over again. The spirit was so strong as we discussed all these things. I looked over at my companion and saw him sitting there in awe. Neither one of us had ever had an experience like this before where someone’s prayers brought us to them. It was such a humbling experience. I began to feel promptings from the spirit to talk to him about baptism. This is not something that is normal to do during the first lesson with an individual. I told him that when an individual knows that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and is a true book, the next step for them is to be baptized. I asked him if he had ever thought about baptism. He got quiet and then quietly said that he had indeed thought about baptism, and that he had made a promise a while ago with the Lord that if ever he met missionaries again that he would be baptized. He then said, “And now you’re here.” Well you can just imagine the look of utter joy and shock that was spread across our faces. I sat there at that little kitchen table thinking to myself is this really happening, this is the kind of story that you read about in the “New Era’”, or the “Ensign.” Before leaving we committed him to pray about a date to be baptized and that when we return we will discuss what needs to take place before an individual is baptized.
Well his is part 2 of an amazing day; we hurried to the church building where we had a meeting with the guy that I had contacted on the metro that called back on a pass-along card. He became a new investigator, and then with another investigator, we committed him to baptism. It was an amazing day, one that I will remember for the rest of my mission. There were so many things that I saw that had been put in preparation for this day; little things that if we had not been worthy, they would never had happened. Our Zone did something truly amazing as well by surpassing standards of excellence and finding 32 new investigators this week, and also teaching 97 lessons !!! we broke the standards of excellence for finding new investigators as a whole mission the standard is like 128, and we found 145 never done before!!!!!!!! So it was a great week we went from 5 baptismal dates to 11 this week as well. Things are going very well. Im truly greatful for what the Lord has done to help this mission.

But now it is time for questions.
How did this past week go after your zone conference with one of the general authorities last week? really well. The mission did really well
Do you feel it made a difference? absolutely!
How did it impact the other missionaries? They seem to be very excited to work! and reach higher goals
Are you getting to teach more? yes and no we already teach a lot more than is normal so we are focusing on helping others get to this level rather than just continuing to grow our area
Did you finally get our package? not yet actually i dont know what is up.
Do you teach anyone in English? all the time here in prague.
Is it getting warmer? a little bit
Do you need anything? if you could send berts bees chapstick and maybe a bunch of black dress socks.
Tell us something about meeting with Elder Neuenswander?he is very good at teaching by the spirit. Everyone heard what they needed to hear. Whether it be following rules or just having patience it was a really good meeting but he put Elder Barker and i on the spot. It was a humbling experience.
Well that is all for today, i love you family spring is coming hopefully and im really excited,keep up the missionary work, you all are doing really amazing things there.
Love your son,Morgan