This week was pretty awesome. We saw a lot of miracles and I am sure that we were led by the Spirit to many of the people we were talking to. This week we have increased our faith by setting an expectation for baptism to everyone. This week we taught about baptism in about 60% of our contacts with potential investigators. I guess that might sound intimidating, but that is a key part of our purpose and is the next step for those we meet. We have found more people to talk to as we talk about baptism and feel like the contacts go better when we talk about baptism.
This week one of our lessons fell through so we began contacting in his area. We saw a guy sitting outside of a car repair shop and talked to him about baptism. He told us he wasn't interested, but afterwards we were approached by some teenagers who are part of some charity group that seemed fishy and they were just asking for money. We offered to volunteer an hour or two a week at their place but they didn't seem too thrilled about that. They talked to us for too long, and after we were able to get away from them something miraculous happened. The guy we had talked to at the car repair shop came up to us and said that he had changed his mind and asked us more about baptism. We met him a couple days later and now he is on date for the end of January. Cool! The change in him from the first time we talked to him to the second were so dramatic that we are worried that he might have some other hidden motive. But for now he says, "all I do is work and go to sleep, and then start it over. I feel like there is something more".
We found 9 new investigators this week.
5 from a big Indian family
1 Vietnamese lady who speaks Chinese
2 from an Indian couple
1 from the car shop guy
K** couldn't come to church again...I'm a little worried about him.
We have a new Branch Mission Leader who is close to our age. We met with him and read through Preach My Gospel, Chapter 12, where it talks about what a branch mission leader's responsibilities are. I think he will take his calling seriously. We have been struggling with teaching less active members, but this week a member at church was able to help us get to know who they are and what their situation is. Getting member present lessons has been hard lately because many of our potentials and investigators can't confirm their time until a couple hours before we come, and most of the families here have only one car which is being used by another family member. I think we will try and set up more appointments at the church. I think that will be easier for members to come.
Love you,Elder Avery
Goodbye, Elder Lee (November 22, 2015)
Christmas Zone Conference (December 6, 2015)
