Fwd: Not Wussies, Dreadlocks, & Would You Like a Baptism with that Gas?

Date: Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 11:44 AM
Subject: Not Wussies, Dreadlocks, & Would You Like a Baptism with that Gas?

Yall!

Get ready for more miracles. God has a bucket full and ready! 

We had some good big miracles, but some sweet tender mercies and pat on the backs, too. 

Fun moment. I was telling Sister Porter in the car that no one lets the sisters help them move or work because they think we're wussies. "No, yall look too nice!" "No, this is too heavy!" "No, we're getting some men for this hard work!" Not five minutes later, we pull into a gas station and see a black family unloading belongings in the parking lot. They were setting up for a yard sale. "Can we help unload your truck?" we asked. "Sure! Please!" said the woman in charge. So, off we went unloading it! God has a great sense of humor. Thanks, God! 

Another day, Sister Porter and I had a great conversation about how we were both battling waves of feeling inadequate, and wondering if our efforts were really making a difference. "Sometimes, you just really feel like a pat on the back from God would let you know you're doing enough," we agreed. That night, we visited a member in the ward who's been through many a tragedy in passing years. We were teaching a lesson on faith, when he looked us squarely in the eyes and said, "Don't get discouraged. You've got a tough job. But God will help you do it." Sister Porter said, "Well, there's our pat on the back." It was a sweet answer to prayer and just the pick me up I needed.

Kaylee, one of our investigators nearly on date, came to church yesterday...and bore her testimony in Sacrament Meeting! She leaned over to me partway through and said, "I love this!" Then, a moment later, she determinedly stood up and strode to the podium herself. 

It was every missionary's dream. She talked about how grateful she was for the sisters coming into her life, and how we'd helped her come to Christ and follow His commandments. She talked about how she wants to be baptized and she's working towards it. She came with us to teach Young Womens as well, and bore a beautiful testimony at the end. "I wasn't raised in the Church," she said as if she were a convert of five years already, "so when I first started learning about Gd's plan it blew my mind. But it has really opened my eyes since I learned that God gives everyone a chance to come to Him." I love Kaylee. She has a new spiritual maturity growing inside of her, and what a privilege to see it shine! We're planning to put her on date for February 21st.

MLC (Mission Leadership Council) was on Thursday, and two proselyting department representatives from Salt Lake came to train us on the needs of our mission. It was mind-blowing, and I left feeling pretty overwhelmed and inadequate. It was seven hours of a lot of spiritual experiences and a lot of good trainings. But it's focus on the doctrine of baptism has really helped Sister Porter and I renew our focus on helping our investigators get baptized. Basically, without baptism, no one can experience the fulness of Christ's Atonement-- that's why baptism is so important! 

We've had a couple great miracles come from it already! We were tracting, and saw a black man with dreadlocks and a baggy hoodie walking up the street in our direction. We approached him smiling and introduced ourselves. His name was Cody. In our conversation, we came to find out his best friend, Cutler, is a member. Cutler had suffered from terrible drug addictions when he met the missionaries two years ago, and since then he's been clean of drugs and is now finishing school. Cody had really seen a huge change come about in his friend's life because of his finding the Church. We asked Cody if he would like to take the lessons that helped make the difference in Cutler. He said, "Yes..actually, I would really like that." Then, applying what we learned in MLC, we asked, "If you come to know that this is Christ's church, and that Christ wants you to, will you be baptized by someone who has God's power to do it?" 

"Yes, of course!" he said. 

"Great! Can we meet with you later this week?" We set an appointment, at which we plan to put him on date then refer him to the UGA elders. There it is!

In pondering new ways I could invite others to be baptized in the first contact, an idea popped into my head to invite the person pumping gas next to us the next time we stopped at the gas station. So on Friday, I put my plan into action. An oriental young man parked opposite the pump we were using, and I said hello.

Me: "Hi, I'm Sister Taylor! What's your name?"

Him: "I'm Alex."

Me: "Hi Alex. I'm a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I'm doing a little bit of research. Can I ask you a question?"

Alex: "Sure."

Me: "Well, first, are you a Christian?"

Alex: "Yes, I go to a church."

Me: "That's great! If you found a church that taught exactly the same things that Jesus Christ taught, and that Christ was leading Himself, would you be baptized in that Church by someone holding the authority of God?"

Alex: "Yeah, I would." 

Me: "That's wonderful! That's the unique message that we share as missionaries-- that Jesus Christ has restored His Church through a modern day prophet, and because of that, all the truths of Jesus Christ are in one church today."

We continued our conversation and he wasn't really interested in taking the lessons, but I gave him a card with our information and mormon.org on it, and he said he'd check it out. It was a pretty good contact! And it felt so good to have our purpose right up front. It was really a quite easy, straightforward way to see if he'd be interested in our message or not. It may need a little tweaking, but it opened my eyes to see that there are many ways to invite our fellow brothers and sisters to be baptized and live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We're hoping to have six investigators with a baptismal date by the end of this week. Pray for us and them!

Have a great week! 

Sister Taylor

P.S. 

These are Kaylee's kids. They always block the door after our appointment so we can't leave. :)

I and several missionaries from my MTC district at our leadership meeting. Fun to be reunited!