Elder Ed Plothow: Baptism & A Great Day At Church

This was a fantastic week, and I am just super happy. A few weeks back on November 3rd, the work was really slow and our efforts to find new investigators were all unsuccessful. And I remember that I really had to push myself to push on, cause sometimes it is hard when nothing is working out to keep pushing. But on that morning I had a scripture pop in my head, and felt the smallest impression that it was meant for me, so small I almost didn't realize it was from the Holy Ghost. But anyways it was Alma 26:27. Be patient and I will give you success. That really helped me the last few weeks. And starting since last week our area is doing super super well.

Yesterday was an awesome Sunday. First off our investigator got baptized! He is super cool. He came late to church so it was a little stressful, and I forgot to do some stuff for the baptism so that was also a little stressful, but it all turned out great. The spirit was there. And Last Thursday we started teaching his family!

But yesterday at church we had 8 investigators come! It was awesome. One investigator lives by another church, and she is super awesome. She was the one I told you last week that ever since she met us she has felt more happy. And she says she honestly doesn't want to come to our church because it is far away, but in her heart"for some reason" she wants to come to our church! (And it isn't that far about a 10-15 min bike ride.) Her husband is also learning with us but hasn't been to church.

Another family we contacted over 6 weeks ago. We just couldn't find a good time to meet her and for some reason or another we could never meet. But we are now meeting them on a consistent basis. And they came to church yesterday too and doing very well.

We've been working with another 15 year old boy for a while, but he came to church yesterday and is doing well.

There is a super cool story another man and his son. We contacted him about a month ago. And he uses his house as a shop (which a lot of Cambodians do). And almost everyone in that situation says they are too busy selling. So he said we could come back and share a message, which surprised us. But I wasn't super optimistic about him. Then we came back and he wasn't home, so we almost stopped going, but we went again. And it was a very short (because he is selling and it right next to the road) but a good lesson. Nothing special. The next time, we taught the whole first lesson but still really short, and he said that when he prays he feels good in his heart. Then on Friday we meet him again and we teach the plan of salvation and the importance of baptism. He said he wants to get baptized (which really surprised me, this guy looks like a really tuff military guy) and he said when he prays he gets this dream where he is having a celebration with his friends and family and he said he only get it when he prays and he has never had a dream like that before. And then we are like, well in order to get baptized gotta go to church. Then he came!

So it is obvious that God has prepared all these people already to learn about the gospel. Without the spirit encouraging them to go there is no way they would learn or do anything.

There are six investigators who all have a baptismal date on the 28th. (Which happens to be my last week in SMC.) We are trying to give them lots of TLC and help them get some member friends.

We are also working really hard helping some of the recent converts remain strong.