Six Upcoming Baptisms (Rebekah)

Things are going so well. We are trying to sacrifice what we can for the work of the Lord and I am so grateful to be able to dedicate all of my time to building up the kingdom of God here on the earth. I feel Heavenly Father’s presence so near to us.
As far as the work goes, Heavenly Father is helping us so much. We have 6 baptism dates right now! Herlinda, Jessica and Katherine are going to get baptized on the 11th. We found a new investigator yesterday named Milton who will also be getting baptize on the 11th. He is wonderful. He is very well prepared.
Herlinda didn’t come to church yesterday and we were really disappointed. She was supposed to get baptized tomorrow (after already having postponed her baptism a week for lack of assistance.) We taught her very clearly the baptismal covenants she is making and that she is promising to God that she will attend church every Sunday for the rest of her life. She promised to come…but there always seems to be an excuse. She is wonderful, she reads the Book of Mormon every day without fail, she prayers constantly, she knows the church is true, she knows everything. She’s already prepared her first tithing, stopped drinking coffee and tea and is ready in every other aspect apart from assistance. We aren’t what to do. We asked one of the assistances for advice and he suggested sharing the story of Mosiah 5 and Mosiah 27 with her. The first generation had wonderful desires to follow Christ, their hearts were wonderful and their faith was strong…but then the second generation fell away and became a wicked people for lack of assistance. Herlinda has a wonderful heart…but that is here excuse. When something comes up and makes it difficult to come to church she says “The Lord knows my heart.” We are going to share with here that while she loves the Lord and is a very righteous woman, her children will not be pure of heart and will not love the Lord if they do not attend church together. A dedicated and pure heart is a wonderful thing, but if it is not accompanied by diligent and faithful action, it will not be passed on the our children and there is little hope of them loving the Lord the way we do. Hopefully that will help her.
We were in the third hour of Church and still feeling bothered that Herlinda didn’t come when one of the members came and pulled us out of the meeting. He told us that there was a young man downstairs asking to talk to the missionaries. We are grateful that he grabbed us, because there are 7 missionaries in out ward right now. Heavenly Father has a way of making things work out and allowing us to feel His love and gratitude for our sacrifices in whatever form that may be. It turns out that the young man, Milton, has already attended church for the months of December and January in another ward, but that he lives in our area. He wants to get baptized and we set the date for the 11th. We are so excited and I am so very grateful that Heavenly Father is aware of us and has given us the opportunity to help in this conversion process. He could have fallen into any missionaries hands and been wonderful. I know Heavenly Father is aware of our desires and sacrifices and when He knows He can trust us, He blesses us more then we can understand. Alex and Francisco helped us teach Milton. It was amazing to watch these recent converts of a month bare powerful testimony filled with understanding to an investigator. The Lord works in mysterious ways and this work really is great and marvelous.
Do you remember Jose and Blanca? I mentioned them a little bit the last couple weeks. They came to church yesterday with their son. In the evening we had a wonderful lesson with them and two member families and a less active member that has passed years without attending church. The lesson was perfect. It couldn’t have gone better. The members here in this ward and incredible. Jose and Blanca decided they want to get married and baptized on the 19th. We are so excited to have a baptism date for a family. They are wonderful. It is a miracle that they decided to get married. The next couple roads might be a bumpy journey and they could certainly use your prayers. There have been a lot of miracles already associated with their investigation of the church, but they are going to need the Lord’s constant help in the process of preparation for their baptism. All of these investigators mean so much to me.
This Tuesday we have changes. I doubt I’ll have changes. That would be hard to leave these investigators, but my companion may. She has been in the area for just over four months. She is wonderful. I love Hermana Rejholec so much. We have been through a lot together and it’s wonderful to watch her progression. She is a great missionary and companion.
Today we are moving houses. That’ll be fun. The mission is such great preparation for life. I’m excited to move into a new apartment, but I’m going to miss this one a little bit…since it was my first apartment in the mission. I’ll send you pictures.
Well, times about up, but I love you all very much. Things are going so well here. The mission is wonderful. There is no other place I’d rather be, nor any other thing I’d rather be doing. There is no sweeter joy then the joy in watching others come unto Christ and leading them by the hand as they take important and often scary steps.
I know Christ lives. I know the atonement is real and more powerful then we can understand.
I love you all!
Love,
-Rebekah