Week 31 - And a Happy New Year!

Christmas, New Year's, and transfers have made for a pretty diverse week. It's hard to think that a new year is upon us already. I should mention that with transfers, I'm still in UNSW with Elder Stephens.

This week, we've seen miracles as we've taught. One of our investigators, Joy, has come to church a few times and is really consistent with praying and reading the Book of Mormon. We've invited her to be baptized before, and she accepted the invitation, but she wasn't really sure about setting a specific date yet. Yesterday, we had a lesson with her. We were planning on teaching about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, but as we began and asked her what she thought of the Plan of Salvation (which we had taught previously), she had a question: "How do we know where in the spirit world we will go after we die?" We talked about how we needed to follow Jesus Christ in order to be truly happy after this life, and how part of that was baptism. The lesson then became more focused on her questions about baptism, The Atonement, etc... We shared a few verses from Alma chapter 7 (11-12 and 14-16) talking about the Atonement and the promises we receive when we are baptized. Joy bore her testimony of how important Jesus Christ was to her, and that she's glad that she could meet His messengers. She agreed that she needed to be baptized in order to follow Him. The spirit was so strong, and after that, she had a lot of questions on how to prepare for baptism. We invited her to be baptized on the 25th of January. She accepted, and we have another lesson with her tomorrow. There are so many miracles happening all around each of us, and I know that when we look just past the surface of our day-to-day lives, we will see the hand of the Lord in all that we do.

Another one of our investigators, Nguien, has been pretty busy lately, but we were able to meet with her yesterday and talk about the Restoration. She was really surprised when we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon in Vietnamese and the first thing she said was "Oh, I'm going to read this!" She believes in what she feels in her heart, and she believes that what we teach is true. I know that as we've met with her, she's been able to feel the Holy Ghost, and He has testified of the truth to her. Teaching with the Spirit is so important.

A family in our ward had us over for Christmas dinner with a big group of their extended family, many of whom were not active members of the church. We shared a message with them and left. I didn't think too much of it, but on Sunday, I noticed a couple of new faces in the ward that were at Christmas dinner. Another less-active family we had dinner with this week talked about how good it felt to have us at there home. Missionaries really have a chance to bring the light of Christ into the lives of the people around them.

Last week, we read 2 Nephi 26-30. As I've read them, my testimony of the Restoration of the gospel, as well as that of the Book of Mormon's importance in the modern world. Here's a couple of my favorite verses. These are in Chapter 26, verses 27-33

"Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.

Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.

...the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which  charity is  love. And except they should have charity they were nothing...

he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile."

This has been an amazing week. The Lord's Church is on the earth, and the Lord's servants are sharing it with the world.

Love,
Elder Clark

Lego Store Christmas display

Elder Santa -- "bring it"

Large spider web that we put a pass-along card in to prove we are bringing the gospel to every creature.

Elder Clark and Elder Chin Au You from Tahiti

Missionaries serving in the ward

Elder Stephens, Maxwell, ___ and Elder Clark at a Korean restaurant.