Well this week we ran around a bunch trying to help a couple get married so they could be baptized and helping a girl defeat all the doubts and challenges that satan was throwing at her in relation to her baptism, and WE DID IT! The lady that was baptized is super, super afraid of water and literally ran out of the font once she was baptized and the other girl literally danced her way out of the font, haha, I thought she would slip and fall cause she was dancing and jumping on the tiled floor. But everything ended well and it was a great service.
Once day we contacted a reference a wonderful family. In the family there is a young girl who has the same problem that Samuel my little brother has but her situation is a little worse. I felt so much love for that girl and her family. It's hard to describe! At the end of the first lesson I went to shake the girl's hand and she held it without letting go for about two minutes. Usually when this happens its kind of weird, and usually happens when the person is drunk, but for her it was totally different. I didn't want her to let go! Visiting that family reminded me of my little brother and how much I love him and how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family, and I pray so hard that this family will accept the gospel because I know that it will help them more than anything!
I will say one thing about this week that really helped me to be more humble, patient and loving. The president showed us a video a while back of Elder Bednar talking about an experience that he had with Elder Eyring. Elder Eyring told him that if he hadn't been rebuked by the spirit recently he needs to improve his prayers. I would say that I was rebuked by the spirit this week. I've been studying a lot about charity and trying to apply it to myself. During a lesson we were being attacked by someone against what we were teaching and the situation was really bad. I said something that I shouldn't have. It wasn't anything bad or disrespectful, what I said was true it just didn't need to be said at the time. I can say without a doubt that the spirit left me at that moment. Everything that I had been studying during the week about charity came to my mind. The feeling of the spirit leaving you even for a second or feeling the spirit tell you that you did something wrong is a horrible feeling. What I said was corrected and apologies were made on both sides and everything returned to normal, except for me. I couldn't get rid of that feeling, that sadness, it seemed like a light left me for a while. What I said wasn't that bad and it was right but it wasn't necessary. I learned a lot from that experience, I learned that I have a lot more to learn, and I felt the need of the Holy Ghost constantly in our lives.
Sunday during the second hour the president of the branch asked me if I could talk in place of someone who didn't show up. And I accepted the challenge, wahaha! I came up with a story about a seed that grew or sprouted in the middle of the road and grew in difficult conditions and what we can to do to grow and stay strong in the gospel even with our challenges of these days. It was pretty good for five minutes of preparation. I don't know. I feel like I'm starting to be more calm with the language and with talking in front of big groups, haha, it's a good feeling. Later on Sunday we had a workshop with the leadership of the ward and I talked about how we need to be shepherds and not fisherman. And I related it to how we treat people who come to church. I taught them how they can be missionaries at church and help our investigators have a better visit at church. It was good and I feel like they really learned something. And this Thursday me and my companion will be having our first zone meeting and most likely the president and his wife will attend! Ah I'm nervous! :) Pray for me, haha.
I'm so happy to be on a mission, I love it! It rocks!
Elder Ralph
