So my family,
This week was pretty awesome! We had a mission tour this week where Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy came and spoke to us. It was fantastic. Elder Robbins talked about how in life, and in the mission, we needed to be 100% responsible for everything. The second we place blame or make excuses, we lose control, and we do not own up to the second half of the gift of agency, responsibility. He taught us a lot from a business side of things because he was a businessman and part-owner of Franklin-Covey. It was a stellar conference. On Wednesday we had a leadership conference with him, where I was able to see Elder Anderson! And then on Friday, we had the mission tour for the whole north half of the mission. Lots of amazing stuff we learned from him, and I will forever remember the need to be 100% responsible.
We were able to meet with Paul quite a bit this week, and he is set to be baptized this Saturday. I think he is really going to make it, and I think he is ready for it. He is full of faith and wants so much to be able to please Father in Heaven and do what He asks him to. We met with Becky again this week, and she is still awesome! She didn't miss a day of reading the Book of Mormon and praying over the summer. She said she went to other churches, but never felt the same as when she goes to our church. She said her parents are super supportive of her decision to be LDS, and she has even been telling people that she's a Mormon! We knew we just needed to invite her to be baptized, and she said that she wanted to be, but promised herself that she would read the Book of Mormon all the way through before she got baptized. We asked her to set a date when she thought she would be ready, and she is going to be baptized on September 22nd! It's awesome! I know the summer was her time of trial, and she has been prepared for baptism this month. It's amazing the ways the Lord works in people's lives.
Here's the miracle of the week! So Elder Stanger and I had tracted a big apartment complex close to campus during the summer, but nobody was home, and we figured it would fill up as school started. So for some reason as Elder Hernandez and I were deciding where to tract this week, it kept coming back into my mind. School starts tomorrow and most people moved in this past week. So we decided to go tract this big complex again. We tracted one or two floors the first night we tracted, and not a whole lot happened. So we went on the next day, and we were tracting again, and again this complex popped into my mind, and I thought we should go there and tract. So we did. We tracted a few doors and not a lot happened again, but we tracted into one door, and a guy came out and started talking to us. His name was Paul, and he talked to us about how he had a lot of Mormon friends, but didn't believe in God, so he wasn't into the religion. Then a girl came out of the apartment, and started smoking and asking us very personal questions--she had kind of a rebellious attitude or countenance. I thought she was a person that would never ever listen to us or accept the gospel--Wow, God showed me not to judge. And we talked with her for a while--her name is Sharron. She started asking us about what Mormons were like, or how we lived, and how we had so many rules, etc. Then she started opening up about how she used to as a little girl pray to God and she felt safe and that He was there and cared about her. She said that now when she prays she doesn't feel that at all. She said she wanted to change her life. We testified of the atonement, and you could tell it impacted her very much. Her countenance changed, and she said that she wanted to go to church. Here friend Paul encouraged her to go to our church, and she ended our conversation by telling us that she was very excited to go to our church, and she was excited to meet with us the next day! Wow, what a change. So the next day, she wasn't able to meet with us, and then on Sunday, right before Church, she texted us that she was nervous to go and didn't have any church clothes. But she said she could still meet with us. Then later on that day, she texted us that she thought we were sent to her to inspire her to go back to her church, and that she didn't really feel like she needed to meet with us. Then we texted her back that we knew it wasn't a coincidence that we met her and that God had blessings in store for her, and that we are God's servants. Then she said she would meet with us, and so we met with her yesterday! She has questions and concerns, not only with our religion, but with her own as well. She is sincere and wants to change her life. We are meeting with her again this week. It was a miracle, and I know that God led us to meet her that night, and I know that through feeling the Spirit and applying the atonement, she will be able to feel the cleansing power of Christ.
I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and that He lives and loves us and guides His work and His church. There is no greater calling than to declare the gospel and see people change their lives. Miracles are around us, and we just need to take the time and learn to recognize them. I love being a missionary!
Love,
Elder logan Bryan
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