Once upon a time I got transferred from one of the best areas in the whole mission (Carmel) to a tiny little farm town called Rochester. We got there and had one investigator. She was wonderful, but you need more than one investigator if you want to have things to do during the day. So my companion and I started praying for finding opportunities, and the first week we were there we got a HQ referral from a member who said his wife wasn't a member and he wanted us to come and meet her. So we went and met them that Saturday and they were the sweetest couple ever! She was raised Pentecostal, but the current church she was attending didn't have any stance on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She knew right off that that was a problem. We had lessons with them about twice a week for the whole time I was there. She had a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon at first, also had a hard time with needed to be baptized again (mostly just wondering about the priesthood!) My companion and I just loved teaching them together. When we invited them to church they came! And they kept coming.
On Christmas Eve they had us over for dinner. It was quite a miracle because we were invited to spend the time at the Stake Presidents house but we didn't have the miles to drive down to Lafayette to spend the day with the other missionaries. So we went to their house and we ended the night by watching Joy to the World. After we watched that movie we asked her what she thought, and she told us she wanted to get baptized!!!! But there was a catch... they are snowbirds. They stay in Rochester for the holidays, but once those are done they move to Arizona to spend the winter here. So we told them that that wasn't too big of a problem. We reassured them there would be missionaries in Arizona and you could meet with them and get baptized there. I couldn't invite someone to be baptized without extending a date... so we invited them to be baptized on February 15. They knew that I was ending my mission soon and that I was from Arizona. So I planned a baptism on my mission for the week I got home!
I was sure I would be there in Rochester to work with them until they moved, but I was transferred out unexpectedly and I didn't have a way to keep in touch with them. The week I got home from my mission I gave them a call and she told me she was still getting baptized and that she wanted me to be there!!! So that Saturday I drove to Apache Junction and got to see a baptism of the sister I taught this last December in Rochester.
The coolest thing about the whole experience was that I really struggled in Rochester knowing what I was to do there. I got a blessing from my District Leader and he told me that someone in Rochester needed me. I now know retrospectively why I was called to go to Rochester for the short 6 weeks I was there!!! I am so thankful that God was in control of my mission and where I went! I love how he works!
2 comments:
aww tears! ths is colleen
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