Hey, so we had a good week this week. Two of our investigators were baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday. It was awesome. It was an awesome baptism too. 15 people from our stake got baptized. There was a lot of white.
So yesterday, Sister Nielson and I realized that we didn't make all of our goals. So we were going to try to finish all of them yesterday. We planned a busy day to visit a lot of people. But after the first lesson, we realized it really doesn't matter at all. We taught this guy named Julius, and he told us for his New Years goal he wants to get baptized into our church. He was taught when he was little but his family never actually got baptized. This was only our second lesson with him, but we gave him a baptism date already! yay! It was an awesome lesson. We didn't say a thing. He talked the whole time and taught the whole first principle that God is our loving Father in Heaven. haha we don't have to do anything. Just give him pamphlets.
We then went to visit a sister in the ward who is dying of cancer. I hadn't met her yet, but when I saw her, I knew that she was one that I needed to help and that I could help. She's just skin and bones right now. She's been lying in her bed for a year now, not able to get up. She kept wiping away tears while we were there. I was scared at first to say anything that would make her cry more and just wanted to follow the lead of Sister Nielson, because I really didn't know her. But the spirit prompted me that she is one that I already know how to help. So finally I did what is very natural to me. I knelt down by her and asked her why she was crying. What is weighing her down. Does she have regrets? What does she want to accomplish before she leaves? I then reminded her of why she's here - to gain a body, gain experience, and follow Jesus Christ. And she has done that. It's okay if she leaves this life. I helped her realize that she can still progress everyday. She's lucky because she's so close to the veil. It was a cool experience. I hope that through these visits I can help her prepare to move on. She's so sad because no one is helping her get the money for another surgery. She had one already but they missed a part of the tumor and it grew back. This kind of cancer is curable in America, that's what kills me. It's possible for her to heal. She just doesn't have to means to do it. So I'm just there to comfort her. Sister Nielson was just going to sing a song, share a spiritual thought, and leave. I'm glad I followed the prompting to talk to her about this stuff. I don't know if anyone else does. No one visits her.
After that lesson we taught a family about the Restoration. They were so receptive. They came up to us last week and asked us if we could teach them. We committed them to baptism in the first lesson. The field is so white here! It's so exciting. I'm so excited for them to receive the blessings of this gospel. The blessings are so obvious here. You can tell who is a member here because of how happy they are. We have a recent convert here who suffered from a stroke. Half of his body is paralyzed. He slowly limps over a mile each week to go to church. I'm sure it takes more than half an hour. He's so strong! And this last week we gave him an assignment to bring our investigator to church with him to fellowship him. So now he's sacrificing coming late to church to he can wake up our investigator and wait while he gets dressed and eats so he can walk him to church. It was a beautiful sight yesterday to see him limping along with our new, little-old-man investigator by him. His son was one that was just baptized on Saturday. When he saw his son in the font he started crying and clasped his hands together in fervent prayer of gratitude to God for helping his son change his life. It's amazing to see the sacrifice here.
Anyway, it's exciting. We have a lot of potential baptisms coming up. But it's still hard work. Salvation was never meant to be easy. We told President that our goal for January baptisms is four. Which is pushing it, because we don't have a single person qualified yet, so this week is going to be busy as we try to get people to go to church. We might have to drag them there. haha.
Oh, so random that I forgot to mention in like all my letters, no one can pronounce my name here. They say Sister Watskin. They can't put the t and k next to each other. It's so funny. Everyone calls me that now; I even introduce myself as Sister Watskin. haha It's great. I love them. It's great here. I love you all!!! Have a happy new year!
Love, Sister Watskin!
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