04/20/15 Faith and Baptism Dates!

That's cool about Kelsey's call, she will still have almost half a year left when I get home haha  What kind of surgery is Josh going to have? Did Devin catch anything cool on his herp trip? What made Blake decide to go skydiving?

I'm good.  We have two baptisms set for this Saturday and two for the next.  For p-day today, we played soccer at a little turf field with the zone and then at the end we played a little football.  A bunch of the people passing by on the street stopped and watched for a minute, you could tell they were wondering what we were doing! haha 

In the training with president he touched on some interesting points including that we should not teach any children or wife without their father/husband there and he cited something that Joseph Smith said in the "Teachings of the Prophets" that he wrote addressed to the elders about never teaching a child without their parents or guardian.  He said, "I don't know what the other missions are doing but you guys have the bad luck to have a president with a faith like this in Joseph Smith" and spread out his arms to represent bigness.  In the same explanation he was talking about what he would do if people of another religion started teaching his children without speaking to him face to face first.  He went on to say there are plenty of fathers here who will just say yes my son/daughter can get baptized. He said "hermano..." pulling up his belt like "man-up" do your responsibility: that of the most important calling we can receive as he referred to it. He is a very animated teacher. He is a very good mission president!

Later in the week we went to an appointment with our baptismal dates for the 25th and we entered in utter silence as we noticed the daughter napping on a blanket on the ground and both of them were studying (not just reading) The Book of Mormon we had asked them to read. I could feel the Spirit as soon as I entered! We then asked them about it...  and my companion said something like " See, what did it take you? like 15 minutes?"  Meaning that is all you have to dedicate to scripture study daily and she said "No it's been about an hour and a half.  First we read 3rd Nephi 11 and then 12 and then we went back and started to read a little from the beginning".  So that was awesome!

Also the other day the husband of a contact was home from work for a little bit so we went to visit them and when we went in we saw a picture of the virgin Mary and above it was a picture of the parents and there with a scripture on the picture, Alma 40:23.  (23 The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.) My companion and I just stared at it and said, "You know that that's not from the Bible right?" Apparently the husband's son (from a previous marriage) is a member and is preparing to serve a mission! So we explained The Book of Mormon to them.