Everyone knows that scripture in Malachi, right? The one that says that the Lord "will open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." I realize it's talking about tithing, and on the mission I don't really deal with that, but it still pretty accurately sums up this last week here in my area. Let me explain. Day by day.
Sunday: Standing in front of the church with no investigators, as far as we were aware, likely to come. Just the day before we had virtually nothing as far as progress goes. Our teaching group was non-existent. And then I turned around to make a contact with an approaching family. Then I realized I recognized them. My jaw dropped, as I said "I don't believe it." There was a family of four approaching. We'd found them last Tuesday knocking doors, taught the first lesson, and they hadn't accepted very firm, so we'd left them alone. And here they were. After church we went and marked a baptismal date for the 18th of January. Everyone accepted, on the condition of receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon. Mother, father, daughter, and the mother's sister.
Monday: Lots of work in the office. Crazy day. In the middle of the day Elder Dunford got a call from a random man who lives in our area who wants to learn about family history and promised to come to church on Sunday.
Tuesday: Visited the family again. They all read in the Book of Mormon, the sister read like half of first Nephi. As we reached the end of the lesson, the mother asked us how baptism worked, because she was getting baptized on the 18th. Without a doubt. The others aren't quite as committed (aside from the daughter), but they all loved the church and are super ready. In the words of the mother before we had even started on the commandments: "we don't drink. We don't smoke. We don't go to parties. We're tithe-payers. I think we're a pretty good family." Good family? Missionary dream come true. They asked us to visit all of their relatives, and the mother and daughter are bringing relatives to church tomorrow.
Wednesday: Another good lesson with the family. We received references from mormon.org for a person who wants to be baptized. I forgot to mention that on Sunday the members passed us the names of five less-actives who they'd like us to visit.
Thursday: We taught the family again, and they're living the law of chastity already as well. Then we went to visit another family who had come to church a couple weeks ago (that family of five that have three sons between the ages of 20 and 24.) The lesson went great, the sons said they know the Book of Mormon is true and that this is God's church. They promised to come to church on Sunday and have baptism marked for the 25th. The member who went with us is a friend of theirs and told us afterwards it went over really well.
Friday: I did a division with our District Leader, and went to his area. I was a little reluctant to leave our now-bursting area, but we had a good time over there and taught some good lessons. Elder Dunford started giving out fliers to an English class we'll start next week, to great success.
Saturday: Returned from the division and went to clean the chapel. Our investigators are so excited that they went as well (we had more investigators cleaning the chapel than members.) Two random people walked in off the street and promised to come to church tomorrow, and they're super excited. The bishop gave us more names of people to visit.
In conclusion: Miracles. Happen. The Lord blesses us. I'm absolutely sure that someone with a lot more faith than me has been praying for us, because everything changed this week. We have so much to do I honestly don't have any way to receive it all. I am overwhelmingly grateful to the Lord for these many acts of mercy, and will do my best to make the most of them.
I love you all. I sincerely, absolutely thank you for your prayers in my behalf. Stay strong, it's all true.
Much Love,
Elder Burt
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