May 2, 2011

Hello my firends.

We had an awesome week this week. The first half of the week saw us picking up 3 new investigators. With the ones we're teaching, the new ones, and the ones we dropped, we're up to 14, which is AMAZING! We've started teaching an older couple named Jan and Leonard. Jan's two younger brothers are both less actives in our branch. We're working with both of them to get them active again. That's how we met Jan. She really likes the church and when we offered to start teaching her as well, she was very excited. We taught them on Monday, and both of them really loved the message of the Book of Mormon. We committed them to read and pray. It was fantastic. The Spirit was so strong and really testified of the things that we shared with them. We even got to bring some of thier neighbors who are members of the branch to the lesson. And they really hit it off. It was so cool. We had another lesson with them last night, and we taught them both the restoration. Again, the spirit was thick enough to cut with a knife, almost. They had both read the chapter from the Book of Mormon that we left for them to read several times since Monday, and they believe that the Book of Mormon is true. We talked about the need for a restoration and the priesthood. As we talked about the Book of Mormon and why we needed it, I shared the scripture in the New Testament where Jesus Christ is baptized "to fulfill all righteosness". I asked if anyone knew what that meant. When no one did, I was like, "that's why we need the Book of Mormon, to clarify the Bible." So we turned to 2 Nephi 31 where Nephi asks the same question, "wherein did the Lord fulfill all righteousness by being baptized, yeah, even by water?" And then he answers the question in the succeeding verses. It's so cool! I love the Book of Mormon. Anyway, while we were talking about baptism and the priesthood authority, we felt the prompting to invite them both to be baptized. It was amazing. Especially when they both said yes! And we set them for a date on May 28th! Woo Hoo!!! I love the Spirit. It's amazing!

We've also started teaching a younger couple. The wife, Teri, is a member but hasn't been active since High School and her husband, Chris is not a member. Teri's sister recently passed away, and they attended the funeral and then requested a priesthood blessing. It was especially cool because we didn't know they were in the branch. We hadn't had their records in the branch, so when they called the Mission office, we got to find out about them. After the priesthood blessing, Chris said that he feels warm, like he's home. And he wanted to learn more about what we know. So we taught them about the restoration this week too. We're planning on inviting Chris to be baptized on May 28th during our next appointment on Wednesday. We've got some tall miracles that we're asking of the Lord right now, and we're praying like crazy and fasting that we'll be able to see these wonderful families united together in the gospel. It's amazing what fasting and prayer can do. Please, as you all go throughout your days this week, keep a small prayer in your heart for the people we're teaching. We've promised our branch some mighty miracles, and we're hoping and praying that the Lord will back us up. And we could really use your prayers too. :)

We got to go to Yuba city on Saturday to help with the Stake's Mormon Helping Hands project. It was way fun. The stake had found a whole neighborhood who was willing to let us clean up their street. We painted their houses, did their yard work, and in some cases, even reconstructed porches. It was awesome. Our branch was a little slow in getting organized, so we're having our own Mormon Helping Hands day on the 14th, where we'll be cleaning the city pool and getting it ready for the summer. The branch is getting excited about it, and we're looking forward to being able to be really visible to the community while we get it done. :)

I think that's pretty much it. We've got some amazing things planned for this week, plus we have zone conference on Friday, which will be awesome. I love zone conference. I'm looking forward to being able to call the family on Sunday. And I can't wait until next week to tell you the results of all our crazy miracles this week!

I love you all so much. Thanks for everything you do!

Love, Sister Reid