Sweetness

September 1, 2014

This week was way good.  Barbara got baptized on Saturday.  I was so happy.  It was not easy but totally worth it.  Last week, she decided that she wouldn’t be baptized because she wanted to really KNOW that what we had taught her was true.  She had received several confirmations from the spirit that the church was true, but she wanted something stronger. I've really learned to care about others a lot more. It may seem silly, but we lose a lot of sleep because of our investigators.  On Thursday, Elder Dunford and I just studied scriptures to help Barbara be baptized on Saturday.  He ran across Alma 32:16-18.

16 Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe.

 17 Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe.

18 Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it.
When we taught her that night we watched the restoration movie, and then talked with her a little about how she was feeling about her baptism.  She literally said, "I just want a sign."  So, we whipped out the Book of Mormon and started to read.  She read slowly, and by the end of the three verses there were tears going down her cheeks, and the spirit had filled the room.  It’s amazing how the Book of Mormon can answer the questions of the soul.  We invited her to be baptized again, and she accepted! 
 

Our Elders Quorum President is also a rock solid member.  He has an amazing childhood story living in the slums.  When he was 12, his dad died, and so it became his responsibility to make sure that there was food for his family of 6 while his mom cleaned other people’s homes to pay the rent.  He sold ice-cream for 10 cents and popsicles every day to gain the dollar equivalent to 4 dollars a day. That was enough to pay for the rice and beans for the family each day, and sometimes the butcher gave him scraps of meat that didn’t sell.  He served a mission and has been incredibly blessed ever since.  

 

This ward is so awesome.   I love all the members, especially our ward mission leader. His name is Daniel, and he's from Bolivia.  He served a mission 12 years ago but hasn’t lost a bit of his missionary spirit.  He works so hard to help us out and wants our investigators to be baptized as much as we do.  He's in these pictures with us.

 

A missionary serving with us is having a bad day....he just found out that his girlfriend married his younger brother and they're expecting a child in November.....AWKWARD.

 

I love you,

 

Elder Marsh

Oh I've learned to play guitar on the mission!! Just kidding that's Daniel's guitar.  We use it to sing special musical numbers at baptisms.  

Barbara got baptized!

Daniel, the ward mission leader, with the Elders in the Lagoa ward.