Hey Friends and Family,
This week was challenging in many ways, but it was still good.
For El, it was SO hard to get her to her baptism. It was crazy. I think that Satan knew how much she needed this baptismal covenant and how strong she would be because she was hit really hard this week by him.
She passed her interview and was so excited to be baptized, but then all the people around her were trying to convince her to not be baptized. They would confuse her by saying our doctrine wasn't in the bible. They gave her anti-mormon literature to read. They would plant all sorts of doubts in her mind so that when we came to meet with her, she was almost fighting against the things we were saying. She was super confused. Through it all, I felt like we just needed to get her in the water. Man, it was hard on the way there though.
On the day of her baptism, it was like the light came back on. She was sad because she wasn't receiving any support from the people around her, but she was excited to be baptized. She was also really nervous. She was baptized and was so happy.
Afterwards, she was ecstatic that she would be receiving the Holy Ghost the next day. On her first sunday that she came, Li was receiving the Holy Ghost. When she saw all the men place their hands on her head, El felt the spirit. She said that she had never seen that type of thing before, but she wanted it.
Yesterday, after church and after having received the Holy Ghost, she came up to us. She said, "I felt it! I felt that warmth that you were telling me about! When they placed their hands on my head, I felt the warmth." We said, "Aww!! That was from the spirit!!" She said, "Yes, this must be why I was led to this church." She is going to be fantastic.
We also gave her all of her new member books. She was especially excited to receive the Doctrine and Covenants. She knew of it because she saw it in the footnotes of the Book of Mormon, and also because we would share scriptures from D&C occasionally. She was asking for a Doctrine and Covenants before she was baptized.
We know that she's going to stay strong because she really reads! She would always study all the scriptures that we gave her. She loves to read. She's going to devour the scriptures. I love it! And I love her. :)
For all of our new members, it's almost like it's hard to pin them all down to continue to have lessons with them. We're just thinking, "Hello! We still need to do your new member lessons/prepare you to be strong and active in the church." I love having so many new members though. It really has been such a privilege to bring these people into the church. I want so badly to help them be strong in the church for the rest of their lives. :)
We've been picking up so many members out in Tashir. It's crazy! They are showing a lot of promise. There could potentially be another five baptisms from out there. We are also going to try to talk to one of our investigator's husbands to open up the possibility of starting a group closer to them. I love going out there too because our member out there, Marg, really wants to go on a mission. She just doesn't remember any of the doctrine. Hah She was one of the members from Alaverdi that slipped through the cracks. If we can just get her on a mission, she would help Armenia SO much when she got back. I'm amazed at how committed she still is to the church after having next to no contact in about five years or so. She's been giving us tons of referrals! I love her so much.
Also, we were dying the other day. We went and saw one of our new members with another member. Our new convert was sick and in bed, and so the member thought that she would go and take her blood pressure. Well...she puts the blood pressure cuff on her FOREARM, pumps it up, waits a second, and then pumps it up again. Waits a second. I could see the little person in her brain saying, "Um...I didn't get anything from that...quick say something!" And then she said, "What have you been eating??! You need to eat lots of more sugar!!" And proceeded to give her more trouble. Haha It was ridiculous.
P.S. It is CRAZY that Tyler's back from his mission! (He's my brother, for those who don't know.) I opened up my letters and found out that he had to go home for medical reasons. That was super unexpected. SO crazy to have my cousin go home and then have him come home the following week. I'm just happy that he'll be able to head back into the field.
Love you all,
Sister Fielding
No comments:
Post a Comment