Marisol was first.
We have been teaching her since my first transfer here. We found her and
she was so prepared. We extended a baptism date the second visit with
her and she accepted, but slowly doubts crept into her mind which caused
us to postpone the baptism. I remember that one of my MTC teachers said
that when investigators have doubts, there is often another underlying
problem that we have to find. We really tried to listen to the spirit on
what she needed to hear. It was so interesting, we would be teaching
her what we had planned, but then one of us would receive a prompting
and the lesson would go off in a different direction. Then, during one
of the lessons this past week, while we were talking about Jesus Christ, we felt
a strong impression to invite her to be baptized again. We did it, and
she said, "I just knew that you were going to bring that up, I could
feel it." We continued to talk about baptism and after she accepted to
be baptized on June 8th, she told us," I just feel really good. I want to
be baptized."
The
very next day, we were teaching Ulises. His story is very similar; we
met him and we were so surprised at how prepared he was. Well, this time
work got in the way. We didn't meet with him for a month. He wouldn't
return our phone calls, or our texts, and before all of this he had
mentioned that he was having some doubts about being baptized. We were
pretty nervous that he had dropped us. Then, out of the blue, he calls
us. He told us that he got caught up in a new crazy work schedule, and
he felt so bad for not calling us back, but he wanted to start meeting
with us again. We set an appointment with him and had been meeting with
him about 2-3 times a week. We had brought up baptism in the previous
lessons, but he said that his doubts had not left. We asked him how his
scripture reading was going. He said he hadn't been reading very much
because he was so busy. We knew this was exactly why he still had
doubts. Well, this Wednesday, we thought we'd just stop by to bring him
some food. (He is really poor, and too busy and tired to make food and
the ward had a party the day before and gave the missionaries the extra
food, so we figured that he could use it more than we could) Instead of
just stopping by we decided to just talk and listen to how things are
going in his life. He completely opened up. He expressed all of his
fears about being baptized. And after that, we knew exactly what we
needed to teach. We bore testimony of the blessings that we have
received from the gospel. And as we stood out in the dark, on the
sidewalk, in Princeton, with only our car headlights to read our
scriptures, I felt the spirit. This time we asked him how he felt about
being baptized. He said, "what was the date that you gave me to be
baptized last time?" We told him, June 8th. He said, "I will be baptized
on that day." He meant it. The spirit was indescribable. It was getting
late, so we closed with a prayer, and got into our car to head back to
our house. I was so happy, I cried.
I
have a deep love for each of my investigators. These feelings of love,
have no words. They are more than words. I cannot wait for June 8th!
Thank
you again for your prayers. You are helping them. Seeing them this
happy means the world to me. I will never be able to repay you.
Hermana Childs
