Hard but fulfilling :)

4.1.15 

   This last week was a very hard, but fulfilling week. We saw so many miracles happen and were able to teach wonderful lessons. The first lesson we had was with Dan. This time when we went over we made sure to establish our purpose with him. We then taught him the Plan of Salvation. Half way through the lesson, he told us that he really wasn't interested in converting. At first I was a little bummed, but then I remembered that the spirit can touch and testify to anyone. We kept teaching the lesson and towards the end he really opened up to us and told us even more about how Christ had saved his marriage and had really helped his family through the rough times. It was incredible to see someone open up to two complete strangers, but it really showed me that he trusted us. At the end of the lesson we bore testimony to him and really encouraged him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He agreed to accept the commitment. As he was saying bye to us, I could really tell that he was thinking hard about what he had said, and I hope and pray that the spirit was touching his heart. Dan is so ready to accept the truth, and I can see how he has been prepared his whole life to accept this message. We have another meeting with him this Friday, so we are excited to meet with him again. This week we also had a great lesson with Yohanna. We went into the lesson prepared to answer several questions she had, but as the lesson went on it wasn't really clicking with her. Finally I decided to just bare testimony of the truthfulness of our message and told her that this is God's church on the earth and that she too could know it to be true. We then went into a lesson on the doctrine of Christ( faith, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost) During the discussion one of our members named sister Wade asked Yohanna what she thought about baptism. She said she felt good about it, but was very nervous to go to her parents with the question. I thought she had already talked to her parents, but I guess not. She told us that they aren't very religious and she didn't know how her parents would react to the idea of her getting baptized. We promised her that God answers prayers and that she could go to Him with her concern. We also told her that we would all be praying for her. We found out the next day that she had gone to her parents and told them she was meeting with the missionaries! It was so cool to see her faith in action:) Unfortunately her parents didn't really react too positively, so for now she has stopped formally meeting with us. It is a little sad, but I know that God has a plan for her and that eventually she will get baptized whether in Germany or in the US. This week we were also able to have a great lesson with Pablo. Going into the lesson I was pretty anxious, because this was the lesson we were going to invite him to be baptized. Well we start teaching the lesson and so far it is going great. We then got to the part where we were going to extend the invitation to be baptized, but both of us froze and for some reason didn't have the courage. Luckily for us the member we had brought along asked Pablo how he felt about getting baptized. I am so grateful for solid members! This helped break the nervousness and I was able to honestly bare testimony that he was ready to be baptized. As I was telling him he was ready, I felt this overwhelming feeling of love for Pablo come over me, and It gave me a glimpse of how much Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father love him. Pablo told us that the only thing that was keeping him from being baptized was that he drinks coffee and tea. We had a good discussion on why God would ask us to do something like not drink coffee and tea. We left him with the commitment to go to Heavenly Father and ask him if baptism was the path he wanted to take as well as taking his concern about drinking coffee and tea to the Lord. Tomorrow we will be meeting with him again and will be committing him to a baptismal date:) 

      What a blessing it has been to teach all of these wonderful people, I can't wait to see them all continue to progress on the journey back to our Heavenly Father. Hope y'all have a good Easter/conference week!

Love,

Elder Griffin