Well I am staying in Fort Smith for another month and a half with Elder Buhler. Things are going well with our companionship, we are working on our unity and giving each other feed back on things that we can become better at.
Yesterday we set a baptism date with Michael S. he is a 19 year old boy who is a friend of one of the young women here who's name is Rachael M. Michael plays basketball with us every week and we teach him three times a week at Rachael's home. The other day we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and when we were done we committed him to baptism and he told us that he has already prayed about baptism and that he wants to join the church. He's going to get baptized between the Saturday sessions of General Conference. It's going to be amazing!
Well we had a general Authority tour our mission the other day. Elder Marlin K Jenson; he taught us about levels of faith and how we need to be seekers of Gods will. I have learned a lot these past few weeks while serving here in Fort Smith with Elder Buhler. This mission tour has really opened my mind to somethings.
I have been holding Elder Buhler more accountable. Something elder Jenson told us at Mission tour really helped me out with a struggle that I have been having. First he said, "If you do not speak up you are thinking more about yourself, than you are the mission." He also said, "Never deprive anyone of the chance to sacrifice something." These powerful statements have helped me out with the way I talk to people and go about correcting myself, my companion and any other missionary. I normally am apprehensive about committing people to things and asking them to do things that might be inconvenient. But I realized something the other day, there is nothing convenient about missionary work. With everyone I meet I am going to be an inconvenience, we come into people lives and start asking them to do and change things, some people respond to it nicely and other not so nicely. It's not my problem if they don't respond to it so nicely. Now that's not saying I'm going around forcing people to listen to me, I am trying to do it the way the Lord would have me do it. Elder Jenson referred to this response to the striking of a tuning fork and how if a tuning fork is placed close to a tuning fork that is of the same tune, then when one is struck, the other will resonate. Now the way it is applied in my life and any ones life who shares the gospel is this; teach the gospel to some one and see what the response is and you can tell if they are ready for the gospel. Now when I talk with people I am teaching more and testifying more and I am looking for the Spirit to testify to me to whether or not the person is "resonating." Powerful lesson!
So we lost some investigators this week Hilde B. is moving to Tulsa this Friday because she lost her job. We are going to make sure that she is found and contacted there, and I fully expect her to overcome her smoking habit and get baptized. We also lost Mary to another church! It's really a funny story, so we meet with her almost daily and this past Thursday when we went over she had this big small on her face. We asked her what was going on with her and why she had such a big smile on her face for. She told us that she had been baptized! Elder Buhler and I had no clue what to say, we sat there and we looked at each other. So we taught her about the apostasy and how the authority to do anything in Gods name was in our church. We could tell that it wasn't really clicking and we asked her about her baptism. After she told us the story we asked some questions to check for her understanding about what we had taught to her. Needless to say she isn't as accountable as we thought she was. We are still teaching her and her family, but we have to take things very slow.
Tido's mother Sou is still being over worked and it is stopping her children from progressing in the gospel. We are going to commit her to quitting her job and finding a new one. If she doesn't then she is going to miss out on some very important things with in her family.
Well that's all for this week, sorry it was late.
Love-
Elder D Kelly Conrad
PS Those picture were of Elder Buhler, Hilde B. and me; the other one was with Sister B. who I got to see at mission tour.
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