HELLO FAMILY! FELIZ NAVIDADES!!!
What an awesome week. It was a PARTY! I know it has only been about 5 days since I last emailed you all, but so much has happened. So, I will give you a day by day of what happened this week.
Wednesday (after I had emailed you and P-day was over)- we had THE BEST DAY EVER. It was so cool. So, at 6:00, we went to Jo's house and fortified him with the good word, for his baptism on Friday. He still hadn't smoked! But it was pretty hard on him just quitting cold turkey. After that, we went out of our mission with the French Sisters to teach some French Investigators that they have. It was so cool! All of them are refugees from The Congo. A pair of Elders have to go with he sisters because the culture of the Congo is very oppressive of women. They treat them worse then animals. I was not very happy about they treated the wife. If I would have understood what they were saying. I might have shown him what is up. AND HOW TO TREAT A LADIE! ¡QUÉ FREGADOS! And so, a lot of times we have to go so that the men will listen and not do/say anything inappropriate to the sisters. We basically are the French Sisters' body guards! But besides that! I love the French guys! They are pretty cool. After that lesson we were late to a lesson with Wil, so the French sisters drove us straight to downtown Phoenix and just waited for us in the car while we taught Wil. Oh man, Wil's lesson was awesome. We went over his baptism and how it was going to work and all that jazz, and at the end, he told us that it might not have worked as it did, if it had not been for us, his specific missionaries. He said that it could have gone either way. I didn't know about that though, because he was literally the most prepared person that I have ever met. But it was kind. Then we left. OAnd this is where the huge miracle happened... We were walking out, just smiling to our selves and thinking about how wonderfully prepared Wil is and how he truly is an elect of God that did indeed hear and respond to the masters call. A miracle in itself. But we got to the elevators that went down to the parking garage, and the only other person around was this woman. We could tell she was sort of avoiding us, but we both got in to the same elevator. She was trapped:) We simply asked her how her day was, and, not even answering our question, she said rather abruptly, "I feel like I need to talk to you guys." And with that we all stepped out of the elevator onto a secluded floor and talked for some time. She claims that God has been leading her towards the Mormon faith for a long time now. She claims that there have been so many instances and encounters in her life recently with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There is no way she says that it could be happening by coincidence. She says that she sees missionaries EVERYWHERE now. And that all her conversations among friends and coworkers are all about the Mormon Faith, and they aren't even members of the church... Yet;) she says that in these conversations, which are mostly negative and criticizing, she finds herself instinctively defending the church! She is an incredible successful business owner and marketer. She has many homosexual friends and her husband is an episcopalian priest. Plus, many, MANY other things going against her. She mentioned that she foresees herself joining the church, but didn't think it would happen for another couple of years. The events of late have changed that. She said much more, but you are just going to have to read my journal sometime if you want all the rest of the details! But the truly amazing part is all the events that lined up perfectly for us to meet in that elevator at that exact moment. First of all, we try to get members to every set lesson that we have. And we easily could have gotten someone to Wil's lesson, but for the first time on our mission we felt that we shouldn't invite a member with us. Which, is so weird because we've got to have a mission record for the number of member presents. We use members all the time! But we felt we shouldn't, and we didn't, and because of that Wil didn't stop to show his house, gym, and pool like he always does. If that would have happened the timing would not have worked. Also, the day before, Tuesday, we had had a lesson with Wil as well. And for that lesson we decided to bring someone that we do not usually bring to lessons (because he is a loose cannon in lessons, takes over, is out of control, and sometimes speaks false doctrine). But for some odd reason we felt like we should take him, so we did. And the lesson turned out all right, but he took over and we were not able to teach Wil the lesson he needed right before baptism. So at the end of the lesson Wil was a little overwhelmed by the member we brought and asked us if we could come back the next day, Wednesday. If we wouldn't have brought him, we would have completely missed the woman we met in the elevator. In addition to that, had the French sisters not asked us to go to a lesson with them, we would not have been late to Wils, and the timing would be all off. Plus, he fact that the day was already packed for us when the French sisters asked us to go with them, but, yet again, we felt prompted to go with them. Another thing that happened was that the only reason she was in the elevator at that time was because she forgot her workout shoes in her car, and she had to go get them! And the list goes on and on and on. Explanation: Miracle. Cause: Our Heavenly Father. Conclusion: God indeed lives, and He is, always has been, and always will be a God of Miracles. And parting the Red Sea is a far lesser miracle then the salvation of one of His children. So that was Wednesday.
Thursday- we went to the temple most of the day. It was amazing, and there were some pretty sacred and special things that were shared by the temple presidency that I am hesitant to write about. Just know that Our Savior does go to His temples spiritually and physically.
Friday- Jo got baptized! It was a powerful experience. And his brother-in-law who baptized him really struggles with memorizing things and can't read was really struggling with what he had to say. But when he got in the water, he afterwards recounted that he felt this calm, a warmth, and then he recited the words perfectly, which, he had never done before. Explanation: Miracle. Cause: Our Heavenly Father. Conclusion: God indeed lives, and He is, always has been, and always will be a God of Miracles. It was very special. Right after the baptism we hurried to a subway where we met with the woman we met in the elevator. It was a great lesson. She bought us some fancy water. She had some really deep concerns about God having a God. And the Validity about the people that came to Joseph in the Kirtland temple. But she is willing to doubt her doubts before she doubts our faith. We told her that all her concerns would be worked out. And she completely trusted us. At one point she said: "in your faith, which I am sure will soon be our faith," and then she said what she was going to say. She is so ready!
Saturday- we had another investigator get baptized. Wil! He got baptized and we only started teaching him a couple of weeks ago! He wanted it so bad. And he got his answer, and is going to be a wonderful addition to the church. He is solid and intelligent. How did it happen? Explanation: Miracle. Cause: Our Heavenly Father. Conclusion: God indeed lives, and He is, always has been, and always will be a God of Miracles. These are powerful experiences that I will remember for A LONG time. After the baptism we went and rescued someone from this martial arts guy. And we actually learned a few Korean martial arts moves. After, we taught them. We went and met Wil downtown. We met at his skyscraper and he took us to this restaurant that was on top of this massive hotel. HUGE HOTEL. The restaurant is called the compass, and each plate we had, must have costed over one hundred dollars. It was crazy. The restaurant also slowly rotated as you ate and was so high up that by the end of your meal you had seen all of Phoenix. It was amazing, I was stunned. Fanciest place on earth. I was in full suit and still way underdressed! He said he just wanted to show us his appreciation. It was shocking going for this slum we were teaching in moments before, to this restaurant. And they were minutes apart from each other. Sunday- was awesome, but I will save that for another day. No time!
I know that God lives and that He is in the details of our lives. He is there, and he is always near. He really is.
Elder Flake
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