Monday, June 30, 2014

Endurance and Perseveran​ce (Week 41)

This week has been good but it's still been a huge struggle for me. I'm feeling much better temporally, I'm no longer sick and I love food again, ha ha.

Even though it's been a long hard week, we have still seen the miracles.

First, B got baptized in Paul's Valley! President gave us permission to leave after sacrament to go to it. It was a pretty stressful day (we gave talks in sacrament meeting and had to leave right after so we could make it to the baptism on time and we couldn't be late because I had to give a talk on baptism, and on top of it all I was fasting) but it all worked out and I saw the blessings from it.

We got to the baptism a little late but it went well. B was the investigator me, Elder Memmott and Elder Durham taught in Sulphur. She is 80 years old and lives with her daughter who is a convert of 14 years. B has been investigating the church ever since her daughter was baptized in New York. She has come a long way. It was quite a spiritual experience and a unique one at that. It really made me ponder deeply about faith. I don't think anyone knew that B was scared of water until she stepped into the font. It took her 3 minutes to get down the steps into the font. She was terrified of the water. Elder Durham got her to the floor but could not get her to lean back. Eventually, it took Elder Memmott to get in to help, and even then it wasn't enough to overcome her fear. They tried different ideas, but she still wouldn't go down. All of the primary children leaned forward in suspense. Finally, after comfort and the elders reassuring their hold, she had the trust to fall and the elders raised her up and she came out of the water a new person. It was quite amazing and the spirit taught me how much we need to trust the Lord to overcome our fears. It's just what my eyes needed to see.

Later that same day, after I had broken my fast, we went out teaching with a member of the bishopric. The first potential investigator we tried let us right in and we taught the amazing message of the restoration. She listened intently, it was probably one of the best restorations I've taught in a long time. My tongue was loosed and my heart testified. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and accepted the invitation to be baptized. We walked away from that lesson with joy in our hearts. After that we went over and watched the prophet of the restoration with our African American investigator.  He told us that "he had his first testimony today." HUH? What happened? I finally found my keys (they had been missing for a week and a half) Ten minutes after I read from the Book of Mormon. WHA?! Yeah it was nuts. It was the first time that he read since he last saw us. It was pretty cool. He said he just randomly found them in the weirdest spot, and he wasn't even looking for them. Crazy stuff! After we watched the video he said to us, "You know the date we set for me to get baptized?" me and my companion glance at each other and said, "Yeah?" He smiled and nodded his head, "It's happening".

THE POWER OF THE FAST IS REAL!

Anyways that's enough for this week. Thank you for all the emails and love! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Look at all the small blessings and there you will find joy.

Sincerely, Elder Watkins

The Baptism of B~

Everything looks the same in Sulphur

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