"Listen" December 5, 2011

Elder Belnap, my companion and I have been exploring our area a little more and this is some beautiful scenery we have discovered.

I am definitely in the phase were the weeks and days are getting longer. With the baptism, we have to start over in looking for investigators. We've been walking over to our other area up the hill a ways. We have been searching and talking to everyone and are trying to find those that need the Lord in their life right now. This week I have learned to pray and listen with real intent. I cant express how important it is to pray and also LISTEN after you pray to receive guidance to your prayers. While we were doing our weekly planning, we prayed to receive guidance and inspiration on what we should do the next day. While we were planning we had planned to go conduct an baptismal interview at 3 and also to visit one of our investigators. We received a call from the other missionaries that needed the interview done and they asked if we could change and do it at 11 in the morning. We couldn't because it would have messed up our schedule that we felt that we needed to follow. So we first visited our investigator, she had been a little wobbly lately and not wanting to be baptized. So we asked her what had caused the change of heart and tried to have a heart to heart. It ended up being that her friends and family have been spreading rumors about the church and harassing her. We taught her and helped her realize that she had received a confirmation to her prayer, that she knows that everything that her family says is false about the church and she knows the truth. She got all excited and was filled with joy, that she said she wants to be baptized on the 10th of December. That was one thing that the Lord had wanted us to do that day. The next one was when we were walking down the street and there was a young couple. The girl ran over to us and said "Elders! hey, I'm a member of the church also! here's my friend, teach him!" He said he had seen us walk by his house, but he was too nervous to say anything. So we greeted and got to know him a bit and made an appointment to come back. This was someone that the Lord obviously wanted us to find. Then we were walking through Central and we passed a guy that was with the police. He and the police called us over and the guy ended up being from Cuba. He said that he had immigrated to Nicaragua and was living there and was baptized last weekend. He then moved here on Wednesday and was recently assaulted and robbed of all of his money and cards. He was looking for a Bishop that he could talk to. He didn't want money, he just wanted the help of a Bishop on what he should do. So we directed him to the Mission office so that he can make phone calls there. He thanked us a lot and said he couldn't express how grateful he is to be a member of this church. He said he was scared and didn't know what to do, because he doesn't know the city, or where to go. Then he saw us and he received the spark of hope because he recognized us as Missionaries like the ones that baptized him. None of these things could have been possible without the guidance we received after our prayer the night before.