¡Hola Fonzfam!
This past week we were able to have a successful baptism for Dulce and the Hermanas had one for Geo who both decided later to finally be baptized. She is a 9 year old girl who is just full of life. She is always happy and always smiling. Her father was baptized about five years ago but has struggled with inactivity. When Elder Montague and his old companion first came in contact with Dulce at the end of September, she didn't want to be baptized and that she was scarred of doing so. However as time past and continual visits and going to church she really opened up. She latched onto the idea that she can have the Holy Ghost always as a personal guide and therefore decided that she wanted to be baptized. She has such a strong testimony of Jesus and the power of the Holy Ghost.
Her baptism was well attended by friends and family of both Dulce and Geo. Not only that but a lot of investigators were able to make it from what us as well as other missionaries brought and had invited. The little primary room where we held it was completely filled to the back. There were at least 60 in attendance who came to watch these two make sacred covenants with God. It was an awesome experience and one that I know they'll never forget.
As some of you may know, our mission held a social media blitz on Saturday the 27th to combat the negative feed that comes from the Book of Mormon play that was going on in down town Portland. Unfortunately the Stake President of my area didn't want any of us or the members to participate, so instead our zone worked towards handing out copies of the BoM. With 12 companionships in my zone, our zone leaders set the goal of at least 50 BoMs by the end of the day. We were trying to meet our companionship goal of 8 BoMs but by the end of the night we were only at 7.
With only a block left to our car we wanted to give out just one more but no one was in sight. I said a quick prayer in my heart, knowing that if I had enough faith that it would be answered. And it was! As we round the corner a Latino man was just getting out of his car, so with the last BoM in my hand we ran over there and talked with him. After we had a decent conversation with him, finding out that his wife and her family were all LDS, he accepted the BoM and the invitation to dig a little deeper. I know God answers prayers, even though they may not be in the way we want or think, he answers them. I am so grateful for that opportunity to exercise my faith and that I know the Lord trusts us when he provides those kinds of miracles. (BTW our zone handed out 55 to help with the mission wide goal of 300 BoMs).
Friday night we ran into a family who we had only met with once and who are super kind to us. They invited us to come share a message with them so they could talk with us more about the Mormon beliefs. At the end of the discussion they invited us to come to their church Saturday morning in return they would come to ours. Because they are 7th Day Adventist their sabbath is on Saturday. Anyway, we were excited for the invitation to go see a different religion first hand. After listening and singing for two hours I'm just going to say that I know our church is true. There were good truths taught and the people were so kind, but they were missing the Spirit. This family did hold to their word and came yesterday to the western regional conference where we got to hear the words of different leaders including Elder D. Todd Christopherson. They really enjoyed it and we hope they come back next week to see what normal church is like with the sacrament and all.
Again, as always I'm grateful for your letters and the love you send to me. The mail is kind of slow here for some reason, but it always comes. With January almost over and February practically here, I hope the upcoming month of love makes you think of those in your life that you are grateful for. I want to extend a challenge to you to do during the month of February, and that is to spend 10 minutes everyday sitting down with a different sibling or parent and reading from the scriptures or church magazines. Read and study them together, talk about what you think the prophets are trying to say and how you could apply it to your lives. I promise that as you each commit to do this that you will see your relationships grow and strengthen with one another. Heavenly Father will bless you with His Spirit and you'll be able to feel it.
I love you all and hope that your week will go great as you tackle school, tests, performances, and everyday drama.
Love,
Elder Fonnesbeck
Congrats to Dulce on being baptized this last week!
Now she gets to live each day with the Holy Ghost and she is so excited to go to Activity Days!
Elder Montague and I won this awesome "OPM" hard hat as part of a weekly challenge in our zone.
The winner for the week gets to add a cool sticker to it
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