Yep, I had a great week. My baptism with James Bernard went through and it was a great experience. I now have officially helped Grenville grow and I expect to have more successes in the future off his conversion. Here is his success story I wrote.
Elder Regis and I, (Elder Jeppson) were both striving very hard to follow the promptings of the spirit and to be guided by the spirit in our finding and contacting, which is something we had struggled in. We both had a very strong desire to baptize this transfer but we were almost half way through it and our most promising investigator had fallen through, things were looking unlikely for a success this time. We kept faith and kept trying though and while we were just running down to town to do an errand we both had the same idea of going back and talking to our next door neighbor. We rationalized to ourselves that he had probably been taught and rejected the missionaries before as he lives literally right next door to our church/apartment. Its weird how the spirit works, because it felt exactly like a natural idea, not out of the ordinary at all. I would have said the source was me if I hadn't known that I have walked by James' house so many times before without even a thought. So I suggested to head back and Elder Regis said he had had the same idea. So we went back and contacted him. He was very nice, 69 years old, and living with his cousin. He had NEVER been contacted to our surprise and we set up a date to have a lesson with him. As we started meeting with him we found he had a very sincere desire to finally come to Christ after his long life of doing wrongs. His prayers were super sincere and spiritual and he had no real issues with any of the major vices we commonly find. We gave him a baptismal date of the 13th and started to progress rapidly toward that date. The largest struggle was he is illiterate and couldn't read the Book of Mormon but we started meeting with him almost every day just to read with him and teach him. After it started to come closer to the 13th and his date we decided that he was ready for baptism sooner and so he was baptized on the 6th and confirmed on the 7th. A total of a little more than 3 weeks since we had first met him. He already is trying to share his testimony with all of his family and friends and causing us to be very busy. All of this is simply credited to the spirit guiding us to him and for his preparedness. It is very true that if you have the right desires and are working hard towards your goals, the Lord will send people your way.
The service we had was at the font that I had actually found and picked out, it was super nice and a great memory. James is really strong and will eventually be a great priesthood holder and aid to this small group here on Grenada.
So this week's cool experiences keep coming too. later that day we had a burial service actually for a members distant relative. there was a small service which we practically ran and then I dedicated the grave, which is a rare ordinance to get to do I feel. Then we put his cremated remains in the grave and that was that.
So I did my first baptism and burial in the same day. Awesome.
I will not say to know what God has done and hasn't done, but I think he also added a little treat to the day that made it even better. there was a international drag racing competition at an old abandoned airstrip out in Pearls in our area and we ended up by it and watching it for a while. Some SWEET cars, very loud, with lots of turbo's, nitrous, and even one car that almost crashed (an RX7 that couldnt handle all the power to his rear tires) and another car that blew up from over revving his engine. I think that was my little reward, and since me and Elder Regis are both car junkies, we had a blast watching the cars and bikes.
Truly a great week!
Thank you all for your prayers and support, your all the best.
keep it up!
-Elder Jeppson
Elder Regis and I, (Elder Jeppson) were both striving very hard to follow the promptings of the spirit and to be guided by the spirit in our finding and contacting, which is something we had struggled in. We both had a very strong desire to baptize this transfer but we were almost half way through it and our most promising investigator had fallen through, things were looking unlikely for a success this time. We kept faith and kept trying though and while we were just running down to town to do an errand we both had the same idea of going back and talking to our next door neighbor. We rationalized to ourselves that he had probably been taught and rejected the missionaries before as he lives literally right next door to our church/apartment. Its weird how the spirit works, because it felt exactly like a natural idea, not out of the ordinary at all. I would have said the source was me if I hadn't known that I have walked by James' house so many times before without even a thought. So I suggested to head back and Elder Regis said he had had the same idea. So we went back and contacted him. He was very nice, 69 years old, and living with his cousin. He had NEVER been contacted to our surprise and we set up a date to have a lesson with him. As we started meeting with him we found he had a very sincere desire to finally come to Christ after his long life of doing wrongs. His prayers were super sincere and spiritual and he had no real issues with any of the major vices we commonly find. We gave him a baptismal date of the 13th and started to progress rapidly toward that date. The largest struggle was he is illiterate and couldn't read the Book of Mormon but we started meeting with him almost every day just to read with him and teach him. After it started to come closer to the 13th and his date we decided that he was ready for baptism sooner and so he was baptized on the 6th and confirmed on the 7th. A total of a little more than 3 weeks since we had first met him. He already is trying to share his testimony with all of his family and friends and causing us to be very busy. All of this is simply credited to the spirit guiding us to him and for his preparedness. It is very true that if you have the right desires and are working hard towards your goals, the Lord will send people your way.
The service we had was at the font that I had actually found and picked out, it was super nice and a great memory. James is really strong and will eventually be a great priesthood holder and aid to this small group here on Grenada.
So this week's cool experiences keep coming too. later that day we had a burial service actually for a members distant relative. there was a small service which we practically ran and then I dedicated the grave, which is a rare ordinance to get to do I feel. Then we put his cremated remains in the grave and that was that.
So I did my first baptism and burial in the same day. Awesome.
I will not say to know what God has done and hasn't done, but I think he also added a little treat to the day that made it even better. there was a international drag racing competition at an old abandoned airstrip out in Pearls in our area and we ended up by it and watching it for a while. Some SWEET cars, very loud, with lots of turbo's, nitrous, and even one car that almost crashed (an RX7 that couldnt handle all the power to his rear tires) and another car that blew up from over revving his engine. I think that was my little reward, and since me and Elder Regis are both car junkies, we had a blast watching the cars and bikes.
Truly a great week!
Thank you all for your prayers and support, your all the best.
keep it up!
-Elder Jeppson