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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Week #95 - It Had Better Be Tonight

Best Week Ever.

So I kinda wish I could do this week's happenings justice through this email, but sadly I can't. However, here's what went down:

For one, Brett and Brian passed their baptismal interviews and are set for this Saturday. They were at church Sunday and they brought a friend who's interested in taking lessons. They're really excited and so are we.

We taught Pierce and Coleman who are still set for June 5th for baptism and loving the lessons.

Our other investigator Mitch is pretty set on July 4th to be baptized.

And last but not least: Steven. He was my first lesson in Petaluma. The first time we met with him, we were asking about his background, and he basically told us he really struggled with the idea of there being a god at all. He told us he wished he could have more faith, but he's always been lacking. He's about 23 years old and just a very honest and sincere person. 

Way back in the day in the first lesson, I told him about a cycle that Elder Bednar wrote about in an article he wrote in the Ensign a few years ago that has to do with gaining faith. Assurance, Action, and Evidence. If we receive any sort of assurance that something is true, we act on it. When we act on it and be believing, we'll see the evidence of it's truthfulness which in turn will give us a stronger assurance, cause more action, etc. Well, Steven's a really bright guy, and loved the reading assignments we gave him in the Book of Mormon. He'd always have great insights and questions about the things he read the following week. 

Last Thursday he called us, and I talked to him for about ten minutes. He basically told me that he's been loving the reading and he wanted to thank us for meeting with him every week. He told me what a blessing it was to know us and that he was looking forward to our lesson the following day. The next day, the lesson went well, but not a whole lot different from usual. Then comes the awesome part: he started talking about his prayers. Our big focus with him this past month was just getting him to experiment; try testing out commandments, try praying, see what happens.  The lesson as a whole went really well from that point on, and at the end I asked him how he was feeling about Sunday (coming to church...he always declines when we ask and never really says why even when we ask). He asked "Is that an invitation?" I told him he's always invited, and he said "Absolutely. I'd love to come."   So Sunday, he comes to church, the ward fellowships him like crazy, and after church he was talking to us and he said "Hey I was talking to my mom about all this and she said if I decide to be baptized she wants to come to it." The words just kinda came out of my mouth after he said that... "Do you want to be baptized?" 

"Well yeah. I've been testing out my faith for the past few weeks and God keeps confirming that it's all true. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"

I told him he was the bomb. He asked if he could meet with us again that night because he's going out of town this Thursday. So, we met, and he gave the most sincere and heart felt prayer I've ever heard from an investigator. He thanked God for the mercy that he receives from Christ each day because of the atonement, for the restoration of the gospel, for the commandments that bring us happiness, and just went on and on. It was amazing, and Elder McBride and I had some pretty watery eyes afterward.  He said that the Book of Mormon changed his heart completely. He bore testimony of how Christ had changed him, and it was pretty much incredible. 

Now tell me we worship a different Jesus than Christians do. He knows who Jesus is from the Book of Mormon. 

He wants to be baptized on June 6th (he actually wants to sooner, but he's going to Pennsylvania for a week). So there's a man who reminds me of Nephi. If he knows God gave a commandment, he knows he needs to follow it and that he'll be blessed for doing so. He doesn't really question it from that point. If it comes through the prophet, if it comes through the scriptures- he know he needs to do it and he does. He living proof that Alma 32 is truth. I could go on forever with more and more details. I wish I could but I don't have time. 

Long story short, the gospel's true. It changes lives, and even if I had only had one of those experiences my entire mission, it would have been worth two years of no other success. People like that remind me how fortunate I am to have all this. Pretty humbling to see someone thank God for His commandments. 

Petaluma 1st ward has been blessed almost to the point of unbelievable. SIX BAPTISMS!!! 

I feel like Ammon when he boasts in his God.

Elder B

Monday, May 17, 2010

Week #94 - These Days There's Dudes Gettin' Facials

Hey Everyone!
This week was awesome! Things are looking up like crazy for us in Petaluma. We have two baptisms this coming Saturday (Brett and Brian) and we set two baptismal dates with Pierce and Coleman for June 4th. They're both really excited about it and the dad is a major support, so needless to say, we are happy campers. We've had some great lessons lately with our other investigators- most of them are really solid aside from a couple small issues that are holding them back. One of them LOVES the reading assignments we give him in the Book of Mormon. He usually asks for at least five chapters or so and always has excellent comments about them the following week. It's always nice to have someone who's that excited about the Book of Mormon- just a nice reminder of how fortunate we are to be able to study it so often.

I was told this week that it's pretty interesting how there are people in other Christian faiths just as unshakable in their beliefs as we are...meaning they believe 100% that THEY have the truth and the correct gospel as well as us. I guess I've thought about that before, but a few things came into my mind about it this time around. Again, I was reminded that "Come Thou Fount" has some of the greatest lyrics of any hymn I've ever heard. It was written by someone who lived before the church was restored but who DID understand who the Savior was. I'm blown away by how perfectly it aligns with our oft-disputed view on "grace/faith and works." If we really do have a legitimate testimony of Christ, we'll feel constrained to be debtors daily to his grace. It has nothing to do with earning a place in heaven with our good deeds (and the Book of Mormon is extremely clear in many places that all the good works we can do will merit to nothing, and that Christ is the author AND the finisher of our faith). When I'm "wandering from the fold of God" even in the smallest way, Jesus seeks me and reminds me what true happiness and joy is.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: Anyone who has a true testimony of Jesus Christ is going to feel they have the truth, because the joy and the perspective He gives you in life is too incredible to deny. I don't know how many times I've been told "Trust me, I've found Jesus, and no one can make me any happier" while talking with people. What I wish people would understand is

1) WE can't make them any happier than Jesus already has, but Jesus can.
2) If they were talking with someone living an insanely worldly lifestyle (good example: Hugh Heffner[sp?]), they would essentially receive the same answer that they gave me: "Look at my life! How could I possible be any happier?" Yet, that Christian knows good and well that the worldly person could be a whole lot happier if they would just pattern their life after Christ rather than the world.

So someone who has found Christ lives a life of happiness, but what if that person also learned that in addition to everything Christ has done for us, He now continues to guide us- not only personally, but also by revealing His wisdom and His warnings through a living prophet (just as He did all through the Bible) with Twelve of His special witnesses (apostles) to help us all remember how to truly be a Christian (if there's one painful thing I've learned on my mission, it's that some of the most pompous, rude, exclusive and un-Christ-like people I've come in contact with are those that scream they're Christians), the priesthood authority of God that seals families together for time and all eternity and enables us to perform sacred and essential ordinances for salvation has been restored, and we now have the written testimonies and experiences of more ancient prophets to learn even MORE of how we can strengthen the relationship we have with Christ? You would think that person would be thrilled, and they should be. Yes, the Bible can teach us who Christ is and how to get to know Him, but God has provided us with so much more than even that, and why- to confuse us? To make it more complex? No! To make us happier because He loves us!! There's so much confusion and contention over His words, and He has provided us with answers! It's not complex at all. The only thing that makes it complex is skepticism and preconceived notions that blind people to what it really is.

Well that about wraps up my time on email, but there are my thoughts on that statement. THE GOSPEL'S TRUE!!!

Much Love,
Elder B

Monday, May 10, 2010

Week #93 - My Mother is Better than Your Mother

Hi Everyone!

It was a pleasure chatting it up with everyone! Thanks for answering the phone- I was hoping you would. I just want to throw out one last Happy Mother's Day to the Mom, and I s'pose also to the other moms in the family (i.e the Cealo, the Vreg, [Erin?]...etc).

As for mission life, the Lord blessed Petaluma 1st ward this week. Things went really well in just about every aspect of the work. There's a less-active family of eight years who decided to start coming back to church a few weeks ago and we're teaching two of the kids. Both were pretty excited when we told them they could be baptized and they're thrilled to keep learning and taking lessons. They couldn't attend church yesterday, but we still had four of our investigators come. Brett and Brian have rescheduled their baptismal date for May 21 and they're both pretty set on it. They wanted to look at the font after church and see how it all worked. Brian's really starting to realize the importance of all of this and recognizes the changes he needs to make. Brett is a major support in helping him with any issues that he has, so it's been great. The ward has also been extremely welcoming to both of them.

We had a really good lesson with our investigator Mitch (21 years old) yesterday after church. The elders quorum lesson was about prophets in the Gospel Principles manual and he was blown away. He loved it and was REALLY excited to talk with us about it as soon as it was over. He just loved it and kept saying how important and cool it was to have a living prophet. We then taught him all about the plan of salvation which he also really loved- and at the end we committed him to baptism. He told us he knows it's all true and it makes perfect sense, but he's worried about his devout-Catholic parents being upset about it. We had a good talk about it and it basically came down to him deciding to just pray about what he should do. He told us he knows he needs to do it, he just doesn't know how to go about it. Anyway, we're praying for him- I'm sure it will work out soon. He's just working up the courage to do what he needs to even if he has a bit of a rough time with the parents for a while.

Other than that, congrats to the ol' Danny Weidman on the mission call and I'll be responding to his letter shortly, and pants. It was good hearing from everyone and the gospel's true!

Elder B(alagna)

Monday, May 3, 2010

Week #92 - Samuel Clam's Disco

Hey Everyone!


Congrats to Samuel Marshall Weidman for joining the family! I was pretty excited to get the call from Sister Bunker. The pictures were awesome! I'm pretty excited to meet him and Katie!

As for Petaluma news, I don't want to give away TOO much information since I'll be chatting it up with everyone on Sunday. But, here are some highlights:

We were thrilled to get two of our investigators to church yesterday. Brett was in a car accident about five years ago and is a paraplegic, so Brian lives with him and takes care of him. We had to go to their house a little before 7 am and get Brett ready. It was quite the process, but it was a cool experience. It was greatly appreciated by them, and they both enjoyed church a lot. It was a pretty big step for them to come, so we're excited to see how our lesson goes with them tomorrow.

In our ward there's a dad and two sons (ages 10 and 14) who started coming to church last week. They'd been inactive for over 8 years and the mom is an atheist, but she now agrees that the kids need some sort of direction. They're nice boys and enjoy church, the dad is set on getting them actively involved, so there's some major potential there. We get to start teaching them this week.

Anyway- it's been a good week. Life is splendid. The Gospel's true and I'm way excited for Mother's Day!

Elder B