Temple Trip

 

   Wow, we actually got to go to the Temple for the first time since the first two months of my mission. Let's just say it's been a long while. It was a surreal experience, we had a few recent converts who came with that were able to be baptized for their parents and grandparents. Talk about an unforgettable time. They were very emotional, the spirit was heavy. Since I'm still a Zone Leader, it was actually my job to choose who does what responsibility in the Temple and that was awesome. I got to prayerfully consider who needs to be doing what and the service ended up being wonderful. I'm pretty sure the mission is going to try to do a Temple trip every transfer from now on so lucky them I guess.

   We had a baptism of a couple named the L's last weekend. They were being taught by the sister missionaries that share the Prattville area with us, but the L's had us over all the time to do service and to basically minister to them. R, the wife, actually had me speak at her baptism and talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost. I was honored to do that. It's remarkable because J, the husband, actually was an atheist when we first met him, but overtime as he's read the Book of Mormon and figured out how to pray, he's learned that God is truly real. Both of them are super excited for their future in the church. They've been calling themselves members before they were even baptized.

  They've got us going on exchanges with every Elder companionship in the Zone which in our zone turns out to be 7 companionships. It's tiring for sure, a lot of work. Almost every week of the transfer, we had 2 exchanges and we still have 2 more. The idea is that they want the Zone Leaders to keep the missionaries in check on a more personal level rather than having us wreck them in a public sermon. It seems to be having a positive effect, I've become good friends with a lot of them when I don't know if I would've had the time otherwise. With all these exchanges, it is making time fly so fast. I have 7 weeks left now and I have no idea how I ended up here.

   I've mentioned the 100 baptisms our mission is trying to go for during Christmas time, but recently our mission president gave a promise that if we get the members and ourselves to start praying for a family to be prepared to be baptized for this Christmas season, as well as putting the necessary work to help find one, we'll have a family baptized. Anybody who reads this is more than welcome to join the movement, any prayers are always helpful. This could be the perfect end to my reign as Elder Batman if I were able to be apart of a family being baptized before I depart. We'll see what happens.

That's all for now. Til next time. There's not many next times left.

Have a blessed day, 

Elder Batman 🦇 

Breaking Records

 

Man, General Conference is quite something. The opportunity to hear from prophets and apostles of God especially as a missionary who is trying to dedicate His full time to God, there's just nothing like it. I find myself not just receiving answers for myself and my own concerns, but also the concerns of others whom I serve. Unfortunately, it'll be the last time I get to experience conference as a missionary, but dang am I thankful for the opportunities I had to watch. 

   Our mission made a big push for trying to invite as many as we can possible to watch either of the five sessions. We are preparing for this Christmas season for what we are calling a ''White Christmas''. The goal is 100 Baptisms in one transfer for the whole mission. The transfer that we plan to hit it will be my last. To increase our odds of hitting that goal, we need to bump up the other statistics as well. More people coming to church, more people on date for Baptism, etc. So, with General Conference, our mission set a goal of having 400 people watch as a mission. For our Zone specifically, we wanted to get 55. Astoundingly, our Zone had 88. Elder Boswell and I went crazy on social media inviting as many as we could and we managed to get 15 people to watch Conference. It's amazing because now our zone has so many people who just had one of the most spiritual experiences they could have, we just need to capitalize on that. We got reports of so many investigators saying they loved Conference and want to watch more of it. That's what I'm talking about. 

   We did have transfers this last week and surprisingly, I stayed in this area with the same companion for the 3rd transfer in a row. This would only be the 2nd time that I've had a companion for three transfers, the first would be my trainer. It does beg the question though, am I going to finish my mission here in Prattville? Who knows. The running joke is that I'll get sent to the middle of nowhere land my last transfer training a new missionary who has no testimony of the gospel and I'm supposed to fix him. That would definitely make that last transfer fly by, but I don't know if I desire that. 😂 I'm glad I stayed in my area with the same companion, we've really found a rhythm of how to do the work here effectively and it is going to pay off real soon. You just wait for the pictures incoming. It seems as if the ward trusts us and are now willing to help us, and that's exactly what you need when you want to finish off a baptism or two. I'm stoked for the future in this area. 

   We did have Stake Conference the previous Sunday and that was an interesting adventure. It was held at the Davis Theater in Montgomery which is not a church building of any kind. We brought a few of our investigators with us and there had to have been about a thousand or so people in that theater. We unfortunately sat a little towards the back since we were a few minutes late and that was a big mistake. The microphone was terrible. There were two youth speakers with real timid voices and I couldn't tell you a word of what they said. Every once in a while you'll get a loud expressive voice that makes it easy to hear, but majority of the time it was annoyingly quiet. Somehow, miraculously, our investigators enjoyed the session. Try to tell me God ain't real when they enjoyed something they couldn't hear. The gospel must be true. Holy heck. 

   Things are moving in the Prattville area for sure though! I'm trying to maintain motivation and focus while the days of my mission death approaches. It's said a lot in the mission that the true colors of a missionary come out in the last couple of transfers. Hopefully my colors are pretty. 

Have a blessed week, 

Elder Jackson Batman 🦇