More Baptisms Coming

Sept 23, 2013 Dear family and friends, Well this past week we met a man who told me he hates everything about America, a young woman who wants to be baptized by our priesthood but won't leave her church and a lot of other crazy things as usual. That's missionary work I guess! It was a great week though and we continue to move forward with our investigators. I had my interview with President Zackrison on Tuesday, it was nice to be able to meet with him. He is so open with us and he has a passion for this work. He is making a lot of changes to this mission and we'll see what happens in the future. We have another baptism coming up this Sunday! We have been meeting with a family called the Z____ family. Their daughter is a member of the church in Utah. She joined the church here but then got married and moved to Utah. We found this family a couple of weeks after we whitewashed the area. They are a family of 4- the father, mother, son and daughter. We have mostly been meeting with the mother and their daughter, Anele. Both of them want to be baptized but only the mother will be getting baptized this Sunday. Anele still has to meet a few more commitments before she can be baptized. We were going to postpone the mothers baptism so she can be baptized with her daughter but she told us she wants to be baptized now! She is very excited and she has been coming to church every single week since we met her. We are working with the rest of the family to try and unite them all in the church. Small story from yesterday. We decided to check a young mother who we hadn't seen in over a week, her name is M_____. She was busy but let us sit down with her. She was so excited that we had come to see her, she said that she had been having a tough day. We tracted into Mandisa about a week after we whitewashed the area. She is Jehovah's Witness (kind of less active there) but she told us from day one that she wants to find the truth. She is usually busy so that has been the biggest struggle in meeting with her. We are trying to help her develop a testimony of the Book of Mormon so that she will have the desire to be baptized. Since she was busy we only spent 15 minutes with her but we were able to answer a question that she was struggling with by using the Book of Mormon. Her question had to do with forgiveness so we shared the story of Nephi when he forgave his brothers after they bound him with cords. She was really touched by the story and how Nephi so freely forgave and exhorted his brothers to pray to the Lord for forgiveness. We shared a few other scriptures with her and helped her understand the principle of forgiveness better. By the end of the lesson she was close to tears and told us: "Thank you so much, you have made my day." It's small moments like this that make the 2 years all worth it. When I see the spirit working in people and the change the restored gospel makes it is the greatest feeling ever. I continue to learn each and everyday here in the mission field. I've been reading through the D&C for the past 2 months. I'm about finished and I have learned a lot from this book. I've almost complete the entire standard works on my mission, that has been such a blessing in my life. I now know that as we search the scriptures the Lord really does unfold the mysteries of heaven to us. I have received so many answers to questions as I have searched the standard works. I'm thankful to my Heavenly Father for the many tender mercies I receive each and everyday. There is no greater feeling in the world then the peace and joy I feel in my heart as I serve the Lord. I feel your prayers and your love. Thank you for all that you do back home!! Love, Elder Summers