Monday, July 17, 2017

Miracles for days!!!!!!!

The Lord is opening the windows of Heaven and pouring out blessings that there isn't enough room to receive them! Monday night we had a pretty solid evening and then when we got home guess what?!!  We received a text from the YSA female rep named Lina that said Dayna was interested in taking the discussions again, and wants to get baptized! Dayna has been taught before but she felt too pressured and had them stop coming around. Well, a few weeks ago Elder Barcinas and I decided to stop by and see what we could do to help Dayna.  Dayna is in her 20's and is studying to be a nurse.  She lives with a lady in our ward named Sister Maha and two other YSA named Urim, and Alysse, who are active members.  (Fun fact: Urim served in the Seoul South Korea Mission.  I think Grandma and Grandpa were just in the Seoul Korea mission though.)  Anyway, we went a few weeks ago and we had a really good talk with Dayna. Afterwards, Alysse texted us and said that Dayna really liked the lesson.  We didn't immediately start teaching her though, because she still said she wasn't sure if she was ready for visits again.  Well, this Monday Lina texted us and said that Dayna told her she would like to start the lessons again and she’d like us teach her.  We were so pumped!!  Lina set up a time for Tuesday for us to be able to go and teach her.  It is also perfect because Sister Maha's son Andrew just got back from his mission and so he was able to be at the lessons with us.  We went over Tuesday and we had a mean lesson.  Guess what?!  We set Dayna for baptism on July 22nd!!!  We were so pumped!!!!  She was hesitant to accept the date, but at the end she committed.  Elder Barcinas and I were so pumped until Sunday came around.  We asked Dayna if we could announce her baptism at sacrament and she said she wanted to wait.  She said she didn't want everyone to know in case she backed out.  We were gutted because we were guessing that she probably was going to tell us that she didn't want to be baptized on Saturday.  Sunday afternoon we had another teaching appointment with Dayna.  I'm skipping lots of details because I don't have enough time, but we taught Dayna several times throughout the week and all we had left to finish was some of the commandments.  We were really nervous for the lesson because there was going to be heaps of YSA at the lesson and we didn't want to overwhelm Dayna, but we also really wanted to talk to her about how she was feeling about being baptized.  We ended up teaching her about the commandments and then at the end of the lesson we brought up baptism.  We asked her how she was feeling.  Dayna has so much faith it's incredible.  The only thing that is holding her back from being baptized is her family.  She has been living all of the commandments for the last year and pretty much her whole life, but her family are staunch members of the Ratana church, and they don't support her decision to be baptized.  She really wants to be baptized and knows it is right.  She has fasted and prayed heaps with some of her close YSA friends to know if she should make the decision to be baptized.  It's incredible the sacrifice that she is willing to make.  So we brought up baptism and the YSA were awesome. They shared their testimonies and how much they love Dayna.  We recommitted Dayna to see if she would be baptized this Saturday and she said yes!!!!!!!  This time Lina was there to start getting the plans rolling!!  She has great support and we are so excited for her baptism on Saturday.  Please keep Dayna in your prayers.  We are really hoping she can be baptized on Saturday.

The other great news is Ritati is getting baptized on Monday!!  Yes, it is a weird day to be getting baptized, but you probably know why haha.  Ritati is so excited to get baptized and so is his wife Tamwane who is already a member. Ritati is giving up his lunch break so that he can be baptized the day after his birthday.  We were so worried because church had already started and Ritati and Tamwane hadn't showed up.  Thankfully after the sacrament was passed they arrived! They had to come to church in order for Ritati to be able to be baptized on Monday.  Another miracle was that we had a mean lesson with Fayne!!!  I don't have time to write about it, but it was so cool!!!  He is the man!!  He came to church again which was awesome!!  I'm gutted that I won't be able to work with him too much longer!!!

A couple weeks ago I forgot to write about a major highlight of my week! Guess who came to the Ham East ward? Gups from Rewa!!!  Gups is the 18 year old who always came out with us in Rewa! He is the man!!! It was so good to see him!!!  There was a few of the YSA that came with him also and it made me feel like I was back home in South Auckland. I miss the Rewa life!!!  So many great memories.  Well, I'm kickin’ hard and going to smash it this week.  I love being a missionary so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I love you all heaps!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Brunson