Hermana Childs: NEW

There's nothing like a new year to make you want to restart, freshen up, and feel NEW again.

NEW hair cut, NEW wardrobe, NEW number when you step on the scale, all can make you feel NEW for NOW, but there's a better kind of NEW that will last.

This week we have been so blessed to have people come up to us and ask to feel NEW again. They want their soul to feel NEW.

Thursday was a huge miracle day. We were weekly planning and thinking about our investigators. Many of them aren't progressing and so we decided to start NEW and find a NEW teaching pool, but as we were dropping our investigators, we felt inclined to keep one, Danny. He hadn't been progressing in a while. It was hard to visit him and he seemed more occupied with the frivolous things instead of the doctrine. When inviting him to be baptized before, he would tell us that he wanted to, but it probably wouldn't be for a little while. He wanted to know everything about the church first. He is very intelligent and has already read The Book of Mormon all the way through. Well, Heavenly Father knows better than we do, He has a perfect plan, and all we can do is follow His promptings. And so we did; we kept Danny. Well, this same day, we had set a daily goal to put an investigator on date and seeing that our schedule was full of teaching less actives for the day, the likelihood of that happening looked dim. We had prayed before leaving the house and read the scripture Moroni 7:33 "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." to help us with our faith. We left our house filled with faith and determination to accomplish this goal. We went out throughout the day, teaching our lessons and pretty soon, it started to get dark and we needed to head home. On our way home after the last appointment, our investigator, Danny, texted us saying that he was ready to be baptized.

We were...."struck dumb" as the scriptures would say. We couldn't believe it...but we could because we had faith that Heavenly Father would complete his promise to us. We responded to his text and put him on baptismal date for the 25th of January.

I would have never thought to invite someone to be baptized over a text message, but Heavenly Father provides the means for us to invited others to come into his kingdom.

Friday was also full of small miracles. Too many to count.

Saturday, our recent convert Miguel, began his family history work and is preparing to go to the temple on the 24th of January.

Our less actives, the Mendez family, usually denies the invite to come back to church from the missionaries. They said that they don't like it and usually push the missionaries right back out the door. When we knocked, they let us in. We offered a warm welcome, which was returned with and invitation to stay for dinner. Over an awesome Mexican dinner, we shared our message and invited them to come back to partake of the sacrament and use their talents in the kingdom of God. They willingly accepted.

Our other investigator Francis, who we hadn't seen in a while and almost dropped, hadn't been answering our phone calls or the door when we would pass by. We were so determined to find her that we walked around to her back door and knocked on the door. She was hesitant to open the door, thinking it might be dangerous, but when seeing us and a member she was a little less hesitant. She didn't really want to let us in, but did anyways, and we ended up having a really good lesson and got a return appointment.

Sunday, the most amazing day of the week. Always. But this week was so incredible. We stopped by the house of a referral, and as we were explaining who we were, he told us, "I know who you are. I want to be baptized." Another jaw dropper.

At church, there has been a man who has attended the last 2 Sundays in a row. The first Sunday, we got to know him, and created a really good relationship. He even stayed for our baptism. But when we tried to set an appointment, he was pretty elusive. Well, when he came to church yesterday, we were waiting to talk to him afterwards and ask him again to meet with us. Instead, he walked straight up to us and asked us to meet with him. He has this light in his eyes when he learns about the church. I can tell it intrigues him. I have no doubt that he will be on baptismal date very soon.

Baptism is wonderful. The NEWness you feel. It's the best way to start your NEW year and a NEW life.

I love being a missionary. There is no greater joy than inviting someone to start over NEW by being baptized. I am taking every opportunity to do so. I only have 6 months left.

I love my mission. I love this gospel. It is a gospel of NEWness and I have felt it for myself.

Hermana Childs