February 7, 2011

Hey everybody,

If you think the Lord has stopped working in Banff after the San Juan baptism, then you need to read this e-mail. We 7 dayed a member to invite his roommate to listen to the Plan of Salvation. He had a lot of doubts but thought he should do it. He invited us over for dinner on P day and his roomate, Dan, was there. At the end of dinner, Kyle (the member) told me , "Oh, by the way, you guys are teaching the Plan of Salvation." So we did a 2 second preparation for it and also told Kyle we were going to invite him to be baptized. He chuckled and said, "He'll say no but whatever." As we taught Dan, we really focused on listening to him. He talked about how he was tired of always making mistakes in his life and how he wants to stay on straight course. We talked about agency and a little bit about the iron rod and how commandments help us to avoid those mistakes. He also talked about how he hates churches that say "heaven and hell" and when we first showed the spirit world, his eyes got really big. But then Elder Nielsen explained it and it made sense to him that the Spirit world is actually a holding place. Then we talked about the degrees of glory. I gave him the pamphlet that talked about each kingdom and asked him where he would like to live. He said he wants to do everything he can to go to the Celestial Kingdom. We talked about the Holy Ghost, and he said this whole plan made sense to him and he had a feeling in his heart that this is good. We invited him to be baptized and he's agrred to February 19th. He does have some Word of Wisdom issues but he's working on that.

It doesnt stop there. We did some service at Victory and Elder Nielsen was talking to one of the volunteers, Antoine. He said he has nothing to do so he gave us his contact info and we stopped by. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Elder Mercado and Elder Nielsen committed him to pray about the Book of Mormon. As they were talking, I was listening and praying and the question came to my mind, "Should I invite him to be baptized?" After I asked that question, the answer was, "Why not?" So we firmed him for February 26th and he said yes. A couple of days later, we taught lesson 3 and the spirit was very strong. At the end, we asked him how he felt and he said, "Good." We asked him why and he said, "Well, it's the Holy Ghost." We also talked about repentance and after committing him to repent, we asked him why he was so willing to do that. He said, "Well, I want my family to see a change in me, and today I did some things that I shouldn't have and I know that repentance will help." He is so prepared and is very excited to be baptized.

Saturday, we stopped by this potential's home and talked to the man living there. He said the people the missionaries were working with previously weren't living there but he said we could come in. We talked a little bit about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and he said we could come back on Monday at 4PM.

Miracles are happening in Banff and the Lord is defintiely the reason. I wish you could have seen the San Juan family baptized. The Spirit was so strong especially as we watched each one of them walk into the font and watch each other make their first sacred covenants. I was able to confirm Florentino. After the confirmation, tears were pouring out of his eyes. Elder Mercado confirmed Divine and Elder Nielsen confirmed Dorothy. Brother Mooney confirmed Norma and Jessica. It was incredible to see the Spirit and to be able to feel God's love in that room. One thing that has really impressed me about this family is their faith and testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. A special musical number was played "Joseph's first prayer". If only you could see their eyes as that song was played, then you would know why missionary work is done.

I love each of you and I know your prayers for me have been heard. I pray for you each day and hope that you can be able to share the gospel.

Love,

Elder Madsen