More Covenants

 

 Last two weeks have been NICE. Definitely feeling like we are being given success from Heavenly Father. Since we've had access to Instagram, it's been a game changer when contacting people that are younger. It seems to be the younger generations are more receptive to our schpeel since they don't know a whole lot about our church and really other churches. They see two 20 year old guys getting hype about some church and it gets them going. That's what I like to see. Anyway, we had a baptism this last weekend. Her name is D, she's 22 years old, and we met her on Facebook. There's your proof that we don't waste time on social media. I basically just asked her if she's curious to hear what our beliefs are and eventually got to a video call. The rest is history. It was not easy though, we told her she would face opposition by being on baptismal date since Satan hates when we do the right thing and an unfortunate opposition she faced was that her mother passed away unexpectedly. They don't teach you how to deal with this in Preach My Gospel. 

We weren't really sure what to do, I mean I don't know if I'd want to be baptized if I was facing something like that. But, D being the super solid person she is kept pressing on and made it to her baptismal date. Even she agrees that she feels happier than she ever has in her entire life. Her mom just died guys, the gospel must be true if she's happier than she's ever been. 

 On to other things, we have another baptism scheduled for next week for J. He's someone we've been working on but the timing has been rough until now. He's 12 years old and he's super excited to finally get baptized. We did have to call his mother and basically plead our case on why we think baptism is the play for her son since she was reluctant. She said something like "If you think getting him involved in the church will be better than any parenting that I could I do then I'll do it." We basically just said yes. It's true in every case. 

 Oh, we were able to get the recent convert in this area to go get his patriarchal blessing. I was so happy for the guy, he loved the experience. We are working real hard to get this guy prepared for the Temple one day. Especially since his father passed away not long ago and we want him to have that experience of baptising him. 

Other stuff... Well, Elder Ryser and I have been keeping track of everytime we get hit on by either male or female. When you're DMing people all day on both Facebook and Instagram, you run into a few here and there. We just laugh it off and try to change the subject with the person, but usually in this case it's not something we can really pursue further teaching-wise. Missionary work nowadays is so jank. Never would I expect to have to have push away so many gay guys on my mission, but it is what it is. 

That's kinda all I got. I'll let you know how J's baptism goes. Should be pretty dope if the kid can behave for a week. We'll see.

Have a blessed day, 
Elder Batman 🦇 

Almost 14 Months

 

 It's crazy to think that I'm approaching single digits for months left in the mission. These last few transfers in Cullman have just completely whipped on by, days are really just starting to blend. I feel like I just met Elder Ryser but I've actually been with him for about 3 weeks now. Quoting my older brother, the second half of the mission goes even faster than the first. Let's hope I don't blow it. 

 One of the craziest additions to the mission recently has been access to Instagram. Elder Ryser and I have been doing a lot of brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of eachother to try and make this work. It's kinda hilarious because we actually haven't received much direction on how to be successful on it, we're basically just writing the history books as we go. I guess that's the life of being a social media missionary pioneer. Facebook and Instagram have so many differences and honestly, having used to Facebook for a good year in the mission, I love Facebook so much more than Instagram. I don't know how to explain it, really just the amount of tools and option on Facebook is heaps better than Instagram when it comes to missionary work specifically. But, only the old people use Facebook so it's a win-lose. 

 Other stuff... Well, we have two people in date to get baptized on the 20th. I've said this in the past and usually hasn't worked out, but these two look promising. D, she is so prepared for the gospel right now. Yesterday, she came to out Zoom church service and even had her camera turned out which barely anybody in our ward does that. After the service, she ended up going to Decatur to visit her mom but also wanted to pay her old church a visit, the Pentecostal church. She said it felt completely different than the feeling she had at our church. It felt wrong to her, didn't feel like home. D told us that it truly has grown her testimony of her decision she is making to be baptized into our church. She is fully on board for being baptized. D also has a cousin that has read more of the Book of Mormon than she has and they both started at the same time. D has been talking to her a lot about the church, the only issue is that her cousin's dad is a pastor in another church and wouldn't approve. We're working on it, definitely trying to get the cousin to come to the baptism. 

 With J, the other person we have ondate, his parents were actually going to have him stop meeting with us and not be baptized. We felt impressed that we needed to call the mother and talk to her about what baptism will truly do for her kid and having that gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a wonderful conversation, the mother was impressed with what we had to say and decided that she'll give J another go at this. We know J is a great kid and this church will only improve the quality of who he is. 

 Other than that, it's just been a lot of joking around with Elder Ryser and making phonecalls. We get along very well, it definitely helps that he went to my high school. I feel like we will stay for a couple transfers together, who knows. We both can agree that we would want it that way. 

Alright, that's all I got. Forgive me for my slothfulness in not writing an email last week. It seems the longer the mission goes on, the more of a drag these things are to write. I testify of these things. 

Have a blessed day, 

Elder Batman 🦇