Monday, March 17, 2014

Tracting Stories and Joseph Smith: March 3, 2014

Tracting stories. Well, one of the tracting stories is about a great man.  I can't even tell you how much I love this guy. We've been meeting with him about three to four times a week since we tracted into him a couple weeks ago. He's so sincere and hilarious. We hug after every lesson and he cries and says how much he loves us. He is so humble. We also started teaching his daughter who is very sincere. They are both on date for baptism on April 12th. Another story is about a very prepared investigator. We tracted into him a while ago and he has come to church and has committed to be baptized as well. I love him.  His fourteen year old son started sitting in on lessons last week and came to church too. He also said he'd be baptized. When I first got here there was only one investigator. Well one day her daughter was there and she sat in and we started talking to her. We've met with her twice now and she's accepted the baptismal date for the 29th of this month. 

There is another girl we tracted into.  When we first knocked on the door another woman answered and said, "Oh, we're not interested." I could tell she was kind of nice though so I just made a joke to lighten the mood and tried to keep her attention there till she would talk more about the gospel. Then someone came around and started talking to the woman at the door and we talked with her and the mood was lightened. Then like five people came out of the house and we all started talking and they asked questions. We shared a scripture about how we can be happy as we are obedient to the commandments (Mosiah 2). We talked about baptism and how that is the ultimate cleansing and power of being free from sin and becoming a true follower of Christ. The spirit was really strong. So one of the girls said, "I want to be baptized." And it was the first investigator's daughter! So we've been stopping by there and she has said she'd be baptized too and hopefully we'll start meeting with her friends in there soon too. So... in short, miracles are happening. It's a wonderful world we're living in. Hope has never been so close to the people here in Granite Falls. We're going to find them all. 

Well, for some reason I've had this "spirit of urgency" if you want to call it that. I am fascinated with every gospel principle and resource. So, during lunch, I'm listening to talks. As I fall asleep I'm listening Lectures on the Prophet Joseph Smith by Truman G. Madsen. While we're driving in the car, we're listening to talks or doctrinal speeches by church scholars. My studies have been so intriguing and enlightening. So as I've been studying particularly the life of Joseph Smith I've felt an overwhelming appreciation and love for him. I am learning more about him as man. He wasn't perfect. He made mistakes all the time. That's ok. So many people are against him here. So I've been making it a point to know everything so I can bear a stronger testimony and have more background. There's a talk by Tad R. Callister that starts off by saying something like, "There's a man in the new testament that has these characteristics, let's see what you would think about him: He cut off the ear of someone in rage. He denied Christ three times. He was told by Christ that he had little faith. If we only saw these aspects of the life of the Apostle Peter, we would have missed out on learning from the greatest people who ever walked the earth. Likewise, people focus on the seeming bad of Joseph Smith and miss all the good and monumental works and mission that he lives." (D&C 135:3) that's one of the scriptures I memorized and it is one of my favorites. So... yep. I don't know. hope that somewhat answers your question. 

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