The Sweet Feeling of the Spirit

In some ways this has been one of my toughest weeks in the mission. Because of a few things that happened in the office, I let a little of the spirit of contention enter my heart. What I’ve relearned is that a bad spirit and the Spirit cannot dwell in the same place at the same time. I really missed the feeling of the Spirit when it was not there. All the visions of eternity that have dwelt in my mind, filling my soul with quiet and continuing joy, and the certainty of it all, which had given me such great hope, fled with Spirit, leaving me empty. It was a horrible feeling.

I woke up early this morning with the bad thoughts still contaminating my mind, but with a determination to overcome them. I knelt in quiet prayer pleading with the Lord to strengthen me. At Church as I sat in Sunday School, and as we talked about the Book of Mormon, the feeling the Spirit returned as a flood of light and testimony. As I write this, I am still basking in that light and the joy and the confidence that it brings. I have a determination to never let anything like that enter my mind again. Nothing is worth more than feelings of the Spirit which is never appreciated more than when it is gone.

….and you shall receive my Spirit, and a blessing so great as you never have known.

Victory

Victory! Alain was baptized yesterday, and confirmed a member of the Church today! For those of you who offered your prayers on his behalf, thank you. They worked. He received the strength he needed. He is happy, very happy. What a wonderful young man he is, and now he has started a new life.

For the past two weeks, my wife and I have been practicing with a returned missionary choir in a neighboring stake. Even though I warned them that I sing like a frog, they wanted us to participate. Today we sang for their stake conference. The mission president let me provide them all with name tags. For the final song the men took off their jackets and we were all wearing white shirts and name tags, though the names were for missionaries in our mission. The women, too, wore name tags. I was so moved by the voices around me that I had trouble singing—probably a good thing. The songs carried such a wonderful spirit. Our choir director was marvelous. She was so animated and excited that she pulled the best out of,us even me. My wife commented that I sounded really good. That made my day.

Winning the Battle

The young man whom I wrote about earlier, who had a smoking problem, quit smoking today. It has been a terrible battle for him, as it is for many people who have been smoking for quite while. Even though he had cut back, taking that last step of completely leaving the cigarettes behind loomed like a giant mountain in front of him. Today he really put his faith on the line.  He must continue cigarette free for this week to reach his goal of being baptized next Saturday.

Chrise and I love this young man. We have been praying for weeks on his behalf, and though we worried that this day would never come, we also had confidence in him and the light of Christ burning brightly within him. This is one of the those pivotal moments that we all have in our lives. How we want him to win this battle.

If any of you, who are reading this blog, would be willing to pray for this special young man, we would very much appreciate it. His name is Alain. 

Andrea

Last night we received a call from the missionaries in Zentlalpan telling us that they were going to baptize a young lady named Andrea, today. My wife and I nearly jumped for joy. We surprised her at her baptism. She didn’t know we were coming.

We have known Andrea for several months. She is a very independent and intelligent  and beautiful young woman with a great deal of self-confidence. One set of her grandparents came from Italy. She has a close relationship with her father and loves the outdoors, often hiking and camping even in the snow—yes it does snow here in Mexico.  Together we share a friendship with a wonderful LDS family, if a little less active, with whom we had many discussions about the gospel and presented many family home evenings. That is where we first met her. At first she did not seem very interested in what we were saying, but as time passed, I saw an intent expression on her face that told me that she was thinking about what we said and wanted to hear more. My wife and I developed a close bond with her. A couple of months ago we told the missionaries in her area about her and shortly after that they told us she was taking the discussions.

At her baptism they asked me to speak. I spoke to her though I was aware of the rest of the room. Her face radiated a deeper inner change. I could tell that she was listening to every word as I talked about her covenant to take upon herself the name of Christ. The words came easier to me as they do when the Spirit is there strongly. I knew that I was talking to a treasured daughter of our Heavenly Father. It was not by chance that we had encountered her. He had led us there.