Week 32 - Stephanie & Chelsea's Baptism

Hey Yall!!!

Stephanie & Chelsea

 O. K. best news ever!  Best Week ever! Chelsea and Stephanie are baptized and the newest members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are so excited for them. The Baptism was beautiful and the Spirit was felt. Stephanie got her wish and not a whole lot of people showed up. She was wondering if there would be a lot of people and we just told her we had no idea. But there was a good amount but more importantly they were baptized and they made a special promise with their Heavenly Father  to always remember him and keep his commandments and to always have his Spirit to be with them. They came closer unto Jesus Christ on Saturday and even more on Sunday when they got the gift of the Holy Ghost. And when both of them were coming to sit down you could look into their eyes and just see the spirit overwhelming them. When Chelsea came back to sit down she was so excited with the biggest smile on her face and it wouldn’t go away. It was so cute. We asked her if she felt it, and she said, “I don’t know, I think so.” Even Stephanie had an experience right after she got the Holy Ghost, where the spirit told her the Relief Society needed to hear. Everyone was in awe at the Spirit she was. She was so close to the Spirit even when we’ve met with her and now it’s going to be 100 fold because she now has the Holy Ghost with her always. It was kinda cute because the other day Stephanie showed us their calendar and Chelsea has written, “Getting the gift of the Holy Spirit on Saturday.”  It just made our day and we were just smiling so much.  They made that promise and we are so proud of them. It just helps me remember why we are out on our mission, to help people come closer unto Christ and to see the change that comes from it. They are going to be lifelong members and we are so excited to see them influence family and also friends and we just love them so much.

Sisters Kresge, Walker & McKee
(Sister McKee & I sang at the baptism)

So one of our other investigators, I’ve talked a lot about her, Lazara, had a baptism date but she’s not feeling comfortable with the baptism date right now. It was a little sad when she told us that she was going to put it off and not get baptized on the 14^th but we realized that teaching to the investigators needs is really important and that could actually be a lesson for all of us.  Sometimes we can’t push the gospel on people but it starts with what the scriptures have told us. . . . Line upon line, Precept upon precept. Sis Kresge and I have to take a step back and we have to find out what she needs right now even though we really want her to get baptized.  But we are going to focus on faith and what the Lord needs us to do. If all of you could keep Lazara in your prayers that would be awesome. We love her so much and we hope that soon and one day that she will be able to accept baptism. She’s still doing real well but things happen.  It was sad but the biggest thing is that she is continuing to grow.

So we had a chance to do some service with Lazara which was really cool. Lazara is the most caring and kind person. She is always serving and she needs just as much as these people but she puts them first. That’s what I love about Lazara. She’s amazing and she is always willing to serve. And so we got to clean out a member’s home to help them go through stuff and throw things away. It just helped us love Lazara even though we struggled a little bit to hear she wasn’t getting baptized, but to know that she is still following Christ in a way right now. And one day it’s going to progress even more.

Sis Kresge & I have been challenged by our district to do some more tracting but because we hate the word tracting we decided to call it Q for B (aka: qualified for blessings). We’ve seen so many miracles even if it’s not the day of and even if no one will talk to us, down the road, for example, we got a referral, Salt Lake called us and told us that a woman had moved somewhere and then moved back to Oklahoma, and was interested in being taught again and so we are hoping that we can get a hold of her so we can teach her. So that is a miracle we saw and it came from us doing the things we don’t necessarily want to do, like knocking doors, but qualifying ourselves to receive blessings down the road. That’s a good lesson for everyone. Even if something’s hard, do it because you’re going to see the blessings from it later.

Smart phones Ya'll!!!!

Some exciting news for the Mission. We got smart phones and its real funny because 7 months ago we had smart phones and now we have them again and we don’t have any idea how to use them. It’s quite the adventure and experience. We are having to put both of our area books into the phone, because Noble was in two parts about a year ago (Noble North and Noble South).  So we’re having to put all the area book in the phone. It’s hard to navigate but its going to get easier. It’s better than our little brick phone. We asked our Mission President what to do with it and he said he didn’t really care. We could use it for a door stop, run over it with our car, throw it. The OU Sisters threw their phone about 100 times and it’s still intact. It’s kind of crazy but we’re going to run ours over with our car. But you know, that’s just the Noble Sisters way. I’ll have to film it and send a video of it next week. We’re so excited to have these, it’s inspiration from the First Presidency from the Lord, because this is going to make missionary work progress so much. And even though it’s really tough to transfer information this will be so beneficial to missionaries in a few years down the road. Getting all the information and the area book app is really cool because it will automatically show progressing investigators and potential investigators so that we can find people to teach easier. We’re still knocking doors but this is just another way the Church has for finding people easier.

Sisters Kresge, Williams, Lewis, Walker

This weeks Challenge: Today we had a dinner message and we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and some fun ways to read it. One of the ways was to find Christ’s name on every page of the Book of Mormon whether it is Savior, Redeemer, Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and we challenged the family to highlight in whatever color they wanted, Christ’s many names. And so that’s your challenge.  You can start from the beginning or wherever you are at right now but I challenge you to find Christ on every single page, because I can promise you that his name appears on every single page in the book. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ will reflect in those who will read the Book of Mormon. And as we strive to become like Christ, we can’t miss this book which a lot of sacrifice was made to bring it forth to this generation of people. Joseph Smith did not have to go through what he went through to bring forth this book and with the Lord’s help he did. He even died for it. It brings me so much gratitude that we have it and more motivation to want to read the Book of Mormon, because there was a lot of sacrifice in time and effort put in to translating it. Back when Nephi was writing it, he had no idea that this 21^st century generation of people were going to be reading his record thousands of years later, but we are and we are learning from it and we are growing from it. It all goes back to one person. Every single chapter goes back to Jesus Christ and I am so grateful to know that He is the center of this gospel and I love him so very much. I know that if you will read the Book of Mormon with a purpose that you will find the blessings and gain a stronger testimony of Jesus Christ. That’s my challenge for you this week. Let me know how they are going for you.

Love,

Sister Walker 

"Everything is gonna be OK"