It is not about the numbers--It Is About Bringing People to Christ!!

                                                                                                                 June 10, 2013
Hola mi Familia!!!!!!!! Como esta? Guess what??? Sis. L is now the newest member of the church here in Cauquenes!!!!!!!!!! Her baptism and confirmation were so incredible!!. It was a tough week because the adversary always works to discourage our investigators before their baptism, and this happened a bit, but with the Lord´s help, she conquered her worries and was baptized on Saturday (My half birthday!) 

We are also working with Sis. L's mom and have invited her to be baptized. She prayed about it and felt that it is right, but she lives in the campo and it would take 2 hours to get to church every week, so she doesn´t want to get baptized and then stop living the gospel because it is so hard to go to church. She wants to wait until her husband's health improves so they can drive to church together.  He is not a member, but we are hoping that he too, will be baptized. Please pray for their family!!  We are having wonderful experiences with lots of new investigators and look forward to teaching them the gospel. I am so glad to hear how everyone is doing! Thanks for all of your emails! 

Real quick, what I learned this week. my companion and I really want our new converts to remain active in the church, so this week we read a talk about the vision to baptize. We all say that we have the vision to baptize, but we learned what it really means. It means having all of our lessons focused on the Savior´s Atonement and baptism. And also inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson. I used to think that that was weird to invite right from the start, and we have had some members tell us that we probably shouldn´t do that. But in preach my gospel it says to invite no later than the 2nd lesson. I have been thinking a lot about this because i used to think it was way too fast too. But this week we realized that when we invite people to baptize from the beginning, then they have a goal and reason to keep all of the commitments that we give them. They have a reason to repent and start changing. We could teach them one thing at a time and have them commit to going to church, and have them commit to reading the scriptures and praying, and after they keep these and learn a lot more, finally extend the invitation to be baptized, but then they don´t have a reason to keep all of the commitments, and because of this they might not even keep them. But on top of this, if we invite them on the first visit, they have a reason to keep the commitments because they help them reach their goal of baptism, and they have the goal of baptism because they want to become closer to the Savior, and as they prepare for their baptism by keeping commitments, repenting, learning, and changing, they grow closer to the Savior and gain a very strong testimony of Him and the plan that Heavenly Father has for His children, and the restored gospel. If they have the goal to be baptized, then after their baptism they will have a unshakable testimony, and then they can have the goal to go to the temple, and then the goal to endure to the end valiantly in the Gospel. With Sis. L and Sis. N. this is what happened. They are going to continue to live the gospel because with the goal of baptism they have gained a true and pure and lasting testimony.

 

People sometimes may think that we are upfront in inviting people to be baptized right away. They might think that we are just here to get more people to join our church, or to have more baptisms so that we can count them as numbers. But that is not what we are doing. We are here to proclaim the truth, to help our brothers and sisters who we love to have a strong relationship with their Heavenly Father and their Savior. We are here to make help them get on the path, and to stay on the path, and we can do this by making sure that they have the goal to be baptized, and they have the goal to endure to the end, and they have the testimony to do so. We are not here to count numbers, we are here to change lives, bring hope, and help people come unto the Savior and ALWAYS walk with Him throughout thier lives. We want all of our brothers and sisters to return home with us.! I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to proclaim the Gospel. It is my joy, and it is what  I know to be true, and I want everyonen to have the opportunity to find out the truth for themselves! THis is the true gospel of Jesus Christ restored to the earth. He is the Savior of the World, and He is the way that we can make it back to our Heavenly Father with our families! This is my testimony and I am grateful to be able to share it everyday! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week and enjoy the first few days of summer! I love you all!!