Heating Up

Looks like it'll be heating up to a little over 110 this next weekend in Riverside, so we really hope to be filling up the baptismal font for the baptism of Juan Vargas. Juan is an investigator that the Elders before us were teaching a little bit. He came to church a few times, but whenever we were transferred in, we had some trouble getting lessons set with him because his work picked up a lot. Luckily, we were able to teach him everything and we set up a baptismal interview for this last Friday. He had a really good interview and is now even more ready to enter the waters of baptism! We set a date to go to the temple with him one month after his baptism, which shows how ready he is to share the blessings of the gospel with his fam!

Other than that, we had a Multi Zone conference this Tuesday. 27 missionaries are leaving our mission in 2 weeks, so we heard a lot of great testimonies/trainings from some of these departing missionaries. One of my favorite trainings was given by one of our APs who is about to go home...he talked about visualizing successes/miracles before they happened. If we can in a way, "spiritually create" these moments, know what they feel like, and expect them, then we will be ready for when they come. 

This "visualizing" is actually a concept I learned from a goalie coach in lacrosse way back, so it has stuck with me and is something that really does work. It helps us to have more faith/remove doubt.

After multi-zones, we had a good week of teaching the people. Unfortunately, some aren't willing to get baptized now, but it feels good to have at least strengthened their testimony of Christ, so they can be ready the next time missionaries in this area come around.

One of the most spiritual lessons this week was with a part-member family. The oldest son in the family is the only member, but really isn't willing to come back to church yet. His mom is handicapped and his little sister is only 10, so we were really giving it our all to help motivate this young man to bring blessings to his family. We asked him if he would be willing to prepare himself to baptize his family, but he is not willing to change at this point. As we were teaching the plan of Salvation, it just felt so right and the little sister and mom were feeling the Spirit, but it is just a tough circumstance. 

We are doing everything to be guided by the Spirit, so we will be expecting some big miracles this week and to find people who can be baptized within the next few weeks!

We will be doing this 4th of July right with a cookout in the evening, so should be a good time with the zone! Hope everyone has a good holiday!

Elder Moon