Hey everyone!!
So In my last letter I totally spaced something huge that happened!!! This might lead you to be like "well how could you forget to put that in your letter?!", Ha! Well, I just did, so get over it! :) ANYWAY! Two Saturdays ago we had the awesome opportunity to have Elder Ballard come to our mission and to receive council on how to improve in our missionary work. It wasn't a rebuke by any means, it was simply constructive advice. He basically told us that we just need to get out there and talk to people! Then he committed us to talk to at least 10 people a day. Ha I also had no idea how funny he was! Elder Ballard has an awesome sense of humor! The church we were in was so packed though. They invited our mission, all of the Baltimore mission and all of the D.C. South mission. So the church was full from the front row of the chapel to the stage in the cultural hall. It was way awesome :).
This past week we had a lesson with Stephon, one of our investigators. He was scheduled to be baptized last Sunday, and I was lead to believe the he had been taught pretty much everything and was just missing some of the commandments. Well we get into ward council and I find out that he hasn't been taught any of the commandments and that someone was planning on teaching him all the commandments in one lesson. So I told them no, that you can't do that because there is way too much to cover to do it in one lesson. So we canceled the baptism.
Like I said earlier though, we did meet with him and we came up with a baptismal calendar for him. A baptismal calendar is just basically a calendar that you put future meetings, other achievements and goals on until the day of his baptism. So we taught him, with the help of a member, obedience and to pray often. After that the member just kinda took over, which was awesome! He shared the a great scripture. Mosiah 18:8-10,
9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand aswitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—
10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?
The member really broke it down for Stephon and went through each one of the things. Then, he asked Stephon, "Do you have all of these desires?". Stephon said yes to all of them. And then the member asked him "Do you believe that the Book of Mormon is holy scripture and the word of God?" Stephon said yes. Our member missionary then asked him, "Do you believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he restored Christ's church, which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?" And Stephon responded "I most certainly do!". After the member asked all these questions, he would ask "why? Why do you believe that?", and have Stephon share his testimony. When Stephon shared his testimony, it was always about the logical side of things. So I then asked Stephon, "Have you been able to pray about everything that you have been taught so far and have you received an answer to whether or not it's true?"
He told us that he had been praying and that he did receive an answer that it was true. I asked him to share with us how he felt when he received that answer and when he prayed about it and he told us that when he did receive an answer he felt peace, comfort, love, and joy. He said it was hard to explain what it felt like, but it was something that he never felt before. All in all it was a very spiritual lesson. We found out that he for sure is ready for baptism :) His new baptismal date is for the 15th of June!
So then we also had the opportunity this week to meet with another one of our other investigators named Solomon. When I was first told about Solomon, I was told that he was a very stubborn kind a guy and that when he was invited to church he told us that we had to go to his church first and then he would come to ours. So, at first we dropped him when I arrived at the area because we can't go to other churches. Then the other day we ran out of things to do, so we stopped by his house. He's is a very nice man! He's a very religious man in the sense that he's a strong believer in Christ. Like he told us "If you love Christ and strive to follow him, then you are my brother or sister in Christ!". He also told us a couple stories of how he was sick and paralyzed completely on his left side and how while he was in the hospital and angel came to him in the form of a doctor and she healed him. He said that he can only deduce that it was an angel because when he went to go back to thank the doctor for healing him, no nurse or doctor in the hospital new who he was talking about and told him that there was nobody in the hospital who looked like the angel that worked there.
Anyway we had a great conversation with him and in the end we taught him about the book of Mormon because he didn't really know what it was when the elders first gave it to him. He said that he skimmed through it a bit but never really read it. So I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and invited him to begin to actually read it. He had a couple questions about it. One question was out of so many Christian religions why is our Church the only one that accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture and no other religion does? Also, he was skeptical about believing that it was scripture because at the end of the book of Revelations in the bible, it says to not add or take away from this book.
So to answer the first question I told him that the reason they most likely don't believe it is because number one they have most likely never read the Book of Mormon, and two, if they professed to have read it and not believe it to be scripture, then they haven't read the book with a sincere heart, with real intent, and having faith in Christ, which is what the challenge and promise of Moroni suggests to do. To answer the second question Elder Taylor told him that the book of Mormon isn't "added" scripture, he said that he looks at it as a continuation of the scriptures.
Then I jumped in and explained that if we were to put the Bible in chronological order as it was written, that the book of Revelations would actually be somewhere in the mid to latter part of the bible. Some of the Gospels, (meaning like Mathew, Mark, Luke, or John - you know some of the most read and treasured parts of the bible), were actually written after Revelations and that would mean that those would be invalid scripture as well. I just told him to keep in mind the things the bible teaches and look for it while reading the Book of Mormon. Then he asked if the Book of Mormon talks about Peter James and John and all of those guys. This gave us the opportunity to explain more about the Book of Mormon. We told him that their names aren't specifically mentioned, but it talks about how Christ called 12 apostles. In the end I bore my testimony of the power and divinity of the book of Mormon and invited him to read it. He said that he would actually read it and not just dkim through it this time. We have a return appointment with him this Saturday and follow up on his reading to see what he thought of it.
So then for P-day we went bowling! Ha I think I played the best game of my life that day! We played three games and the first one I bowled a 113. Then I decided to mess around the second game, so I got like a 93. Then the third game I got a score of 102. It was a ton of fun :).
Well that is my wonderful week! I hope you had a wonderful week filled with the spirit! I hope you all have shared your testimony with someone this past week! I love you all, and have a wonderful rest of the week :).
Love,
Elder Gold
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