Baptism!

This week was pretty good. We were able to solidify our baptismal date with M__ (9 yrs old), his mother was the main concern. She is Less-active and didn't really understand why he would need to be baptized again, but we explained it to her, she prayed about it, and then she asked M__if he wanted to be baptized and he said he did, so she is allowing him to. She also came to church with them this Sunday, which was great to see. 

We are really working on building up our teaching pool right now and we set good goals for the week to not only have 10 gospel discussions a day (which is a mission goal), but to have 10 contact details/potential investigators a day and also to get 2 return appointments each day. We feel that these are achievable and also that having these goals will shift the focus from just getting a gospel discussion in it's minimum definition to really trying to get contact details from people, even if we have no time to teach a full gospel discussion.

A few areas in the zone raised their vision in finding this week as we invited them to get 10 Gospel Discussions a day, and it was good to see the improvement. Other areas seem to really be struggling though, and their key indicators have not changed very much. We discussed with the assistants in accounting and they gave us great invitations and help, which we will apply immediately.

I was able to be on exchange with Elder Wagaman this week while Elder Hare went with Elder Ocando to work his area with him. It was a great exchange; Elder Wagamon is a good missionary and has a great desire to work and to work hard. He is assigned to a Spanish speaking ward here and is doing ok, but he needs to learn quickly because he will have to take over the area in 3 weeks when Elder Ocando goes home, but we gave them the specific invitation to speak to each other in Spanish, even in the flat. They accepted to do so, and I am sure it will help.

We didn't see R__ ( from the Easter tour) yet; he cancelled, but we rearranged for this week and will call him today to confirm it. No new investigators this week but hopefully we will get some soon.

One really cool experience this week was a gospel discussion on the street with a lady. She was a bit hesitant to talk to us because of the world's view of us, but she began to see that our beliefs are very similar to hers and she tried to find something that was different in our core beliefs. The trinity was the conflicting doctrine. We explained why we believe they are 3 separate people that are 1 in purpose, and by the end of that 45 minute conversation and after her many questions and our many scripture quotations and expounding of doctrine, she said she was "refreshed" and that she was "full." Super COOL. We straight up filled her with the spirit!! When she said refreshed it reminded me of Peter's words in Acts 3:19-21 

  19 ¶Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the  times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

 20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

The youth theme is pretty cool this year. I downloaded all the music when it first came up on lds.org. It is actually pretty good. They make it better and better every year.

I hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU LOTS! Sorry, no photos. I will repent! It is just really hard to pull a camera out and take pictures when you are super busy and used to Guernsey views!

Love, 

Elder Brown