So,
it was a pretty good week here in Joshua. I had my first baptism whom
is awesome. I honestly only met him a couple times because he was in
Houston for a couple weeks taking care of his friend who has cancer. I
did teach him once over the phone though. Definitely not the best way to
teach someone the gospel, but it works. He didn't end up coming
back until Friday so we had to go pick up our district leader, Elder
Allison, in Fort Worth and get the interview done quickly. Elder
Allison was all worried because "what if there's an issue?" But he came
out in tears because our investigator was so ready and humble. It's also
his last transfer so everything is pretty emotional for him, haha. There
were only like ten people at the baptism so I ended up having to play
piano and give the talk on baptism. We were super rushed getting
everything together but it all worked out.
On
Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Allison in Fort Worth which is
a biking area. I am certainly grateful I have a car right now. I sweat
so much and was completely sore by the end of the day, but I guess I'll
have to get used to it at some point. We did a couple hours of
contacting to begin with. We had one good lesson with a guy who was
totally out of it at first and slowly woke up more as we taught him
about the restoration and plan of salvation. It was cool to see him go
from a dazed "huh..." to an excited "what?! When can you come back and
explain this more?" We also met this other lady who is a Seventh Day
Adventist. She talked for a good fifteen minutes about how clear the
bible is about the Sabbath day and how the pope is leading the whole
world astray trying to get them to worship on Sunday of all days. One
thing most Texans agree on is that the Catholics have gone off the path.
Her spiel really showed me how far other religions have gone from
actually worshipping the Savior. A lot of them around here get so caught
up in a single doctrine that they completely forget why it even
matters. It seems like this lady's only firm belief was that Saturday
was the Sabbath. I don't think she mentioned the Savior once.
The
rest of the exchange went pretty well too. We taught about four lessons
that day. The most interesting one was with a Baptist seminary student
who didn't believe in the apostasy. He honestly wanted to know what
proof we had though. Most of his arguments were based on small phrases
in the English Standard Version of the Bible. One was in Jude 1:3. The
ESV Bible said "the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints." implying that the gospel was revealed once and it didn't need to be revealed again. The King James says "the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Implying that the
gospel was once delivered but has now been departed from. I didn't bring
that up, but I'm regretting it now.
That
night Elder Allison also gave an awesome prayer. He prayed for me first
which was cool but he then prayed for you guys. He prayed that my
family would be protected and blessed as I serve and that they would
gain greater knowledge and understanding. It brought me to tears. I
really wish you could have heard it.
Zone
conference was also this week. It was focused on becoming a full
purpose missionary and working with members more. I'll just send my
notes, because I'm running out of time.
No funny stories for this week, but have a good one!
Love,
Elder O'Brien (the younger)
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