A joyful new beginning

The work is going great - like clockwork. While I'm avoiding getting proud in my own abilities, I am absolutely loving that God is providing miracles of missionary work left and right. We have been working heavily with the ward members to get everyone excited about the work and we are seeing the fruits of our labors -- I'll mention just a few of them:

First of all, we have had gloriously gorgeous weather almost all week. It's been sunny and beautiful and a great week to be outside. It just so happened that this was Elder Rees' and my week to be riding our bicycles. So naturally, we were extremely grateful and I was just beaming wherever I rode about. I couldn't help but whistle a tune or sing a little ditty while biking up and down the streets of Forest Grove. I felt like I was in one of those classic black in white, happy musicals. Lol.

Wednesday, Elder Buhler (my zone leader) and I didn't have as good of fortune and we were accompanied around by rain and clouds all day. However, rays of blessings and miracles came our way as we spent most of the day tracting and knocking on people's doors. One person we visited wasn't home, so we decided to knock the surrounding doors in the area and ended up finding an inactive member that wasn't on the ward's records, as well as a new investigator. She was a younger woman with three little kids. It was sad to see her come out with a cigarette in her mouth and a beer in her hand with her sons watching.

Elder Buhler left no room for hesitation and testified that we know that the Gospel is here to help us change bad habits and take care of our bodies by not smoking or drinking alcohol. Surprising to me, she received the testimony with hope and a comment about wanting to change for the better. The Spirit truly works through our words as we testify. It's not as important what we say, as it is that we bear strong testimony of the Gospel in any simple way.

Our other miracle happened when we went tracting with the Priests of the ward. This was the same young men we took out a couple weeks ago, but this time I went with the other young man. He was very open and shared his testimony freely. I felt that if I treated them as though they already knew what they should do, while still adding small suggestions and hints, that they would be who they needed to become and say what they needed to say to help the people we met. It could be intimidating to some to think that we let teenagers go out and represent the church, but I always remind myself that hey! They let me out here. Haha.

While no immediate success was apparent from the doors we knocked on, we went back the next morning to talk to a former Jehovah's Witness who said she might be interested and lo, and behold, the single mother with five kids opened her door and heart warmly to the Gospel. We will be teaching her more soon.

Saturday we had the baptism of the individual who was interviewed last week. President Morby said in front of all the missionaries in zone conference that our baptismal candidate said the most sincere prayer he has heard anyone utter while he was interviewing her and he congratulated us for being able to teach her the correct vision of the Godhead. I felt humbled by the comment but knew that it was God's influence that promoted her progress, not mine.

The baptismal service went well and it was a strong spiritual meeting. Elder Rees and I testified of the Restoration (in front of President and Sister Morby and two companionships from our district who were also there to witness the baptism- ahh scary!) during the interlude and it was cool.

I'm grateful that the work is going so well and productive for us and I pray that it will continue. I know it's not my own strength, but that it's God's strengthening of my weakness. This is a great work. Thanks everyone for your support and prayers. Keep em coming!