This week I've been thinking a lot about people and how they can stay active in the church. I think I already told you the inactivity in our ward is over 1100 people but it was making me a little discouraged this week. Me and Tu'akalau had a talk about it one night. I told her how it’s hard to want to baptize others when it feels like everyone is just being baptized into inactivity and she told me that lately she had been feeling the same. I told her I think we need to focus on the Book of Mormon more. I have really come to learn the BOM is the only real life line we have. If people really love the BOM if they study it every day they will be lead to Christ and his true church! My testimony for the Book of Mormon has grown so much! If we ever go red in the flood (if we have to evacuate) I’m grabbing my BOM and my camera! The BOM because its full of notes and pictures and spiritual revelation and my camera because heaven knows the pictures and videos on their comedy gold! (at least to missionaries...) But I sent my mom a BOM challenge you should do it too! I honestly have never felt so close to heavenly father! So this week we had my first baptism YEAH!!! Sister Nene was baptized and it was so cool to stand over on the side with Sister Tu'akalau and watch her go in and back out of the water! WHen she came out she had the biggest smile on her face it was so amazing to see! She also is the guardian for the cutest little 9 year old named Gerald. Me and Gerald are best friends and every time we "hangout" we probably say less then 20 words to each other because I don't understand his Tagalog and doesn't understand mine but I've learned you can say a lot through love alone! Every time we teach him or he comes to church he comes straight over to sit by me and together we learn the gospel and laugh and enjoy every second. We have this thing too that every time I see him I put my hands in a heart shape over my heart and make "heart" sounds and then he laughs and does it back. Im not sure how it started? I just did it one day in our serve others lesson and now its just our thing. Another thing I learned from Gerald and love is that when you are judging others you aren't loving them. Gerald was labeled a "hard kid" because he didn't ever talk in lessons but I felt that because of the serious way they taught him he felt uncomfortable and of course when you teach a nine year old like an adult the child isn't going to learn so I asked if we could teach him a little different... might I add I did this in the middle of his lesson... We were teaching him about prayer and he wasnt saying anything and was just looking down playing with the rubber band on his wrist so I asked him if I could see one of his bands set up a cup on a chair in front of us and told him the 1st one to get the rubber band in the cup wins 1,2,3 GO! It was so much fun! He started laughing and when I missed and had to go get my rubber band I kept poking him in the side so he would laugh and not win but he still did beat me. I then told him saying your prayers can be kinda hard at first like shooting a rubber band in the cup but the more you pray (or the more you practice shooting) the easier it gets we then invited him to say the closing prayer and he DID!!! That was the start of our breakthrough with him! When he watched his grandma get baptized he asked us when he could be baptized too! The Lord will send miracles and help but first you have to do the work and stop judging the people! Yes we much be smart... if someone is holding a gun to your head maybe don't try to hug him because "Maybe hes having a bad day." But don't be afraid to help someone because at first it seems they aren't interested. The words of "As I have loved you" have been playing in my head. As I have loved you, love one another... is we want to be loved by others, by heavenly father, then me must first be ready to love! Sorry that story was a lot longer than I meant for it to be but thats okay! Missions are hard but that doesnt mean they aren’t fun!
I hope you are having a great week! Love you!
Sister Baton
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