This week was another great one!
On Saturday,
Dorothy, a 97-year old woman we've been teaching, got baptized! Sister
Missionaries have been teaching her for just over a year now (which is
why all of the STL's came together for the baptism- at least one in each
companionship has served here 😁) and it's been awesome to see the
effect her son (who converted a year ago and just went through the
temple last week!) has had on her change of heart to find the truth
within this gospel for herself. She said it was a hard choice to leave
the religion that she grew up in and has believed in for the past
century, but as she came to know this was true she knew what she needed
to do (be baptized by someone holding the restored priesthood authority
from God) and everyone around her has said they've seen the change in
her already. She's happier and even remembers things better (according
to her son)! It was just an awesome day, and I'm glad everything worked
out for her to be baptized while on this earth (it took 3 men standing
in there with her and being dunked twice, haha). We all sat on edge as
she went the whole way into and back out of the font.. but it was good.
👌
Also, Tyson, a boy we've been teaching whose
mom became a member herself in the summertime, is now on date to work
towards being baptized on January 12! We had an awesome lesson last week
where we played a scavenger hunt game with him, talking about the
gospel of Jesus Christ (kids have small attention spans, so we do a lot
of activity lessons 😉), and it was really cool to see how much he's
actually retaining from our lessons, as sometimes it feels like he isn't
listening 100% or his mind is elsewhere (like FHE's at home.. parenting
practice lol)! But he was able to relate to us many of the analogies or
videos we've used to teach him with and explained in his own words what
it means to have faith and to repent, and the importance of being
baptized to follow the example of Jesus Christ, to be able to live with
Him and our Heavenly Father again. It's so rewarding when you see the
people you're teaching growing in their faith and understanding of their
Savior and His teachings because it really does change lives.
One quote I love from the ARP booklet says:
“The
Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in.
The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out
of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world
would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who
then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but
Christ can change human nature. …
“May we be convinced that
Jesus is the Christ, choose to follow Him, be changed for Him, captained
by Him, consumed in Him, and born again” (President Ezra Taft Benson,
Oct. 1985 GC "Born of God").
His gospel is a
message of peace and goodwill, and He entreats all to follow Him ("The
Living Christ"). And all that comes of it is eternal joy and happiness.
Let's all follow Jesus Christ this week.
Love you guys,
Sister Wilcox
Pics:
Dorothy's
baptism (I swear she was happy even though she doesn't look it in the
picture lol),
last pday's hike in Garden Valley 😍,
a horse that kept
yawning (haha it looked so funny),
the Riverview ward Christmas Party
cleanup crew aka the primary (the little girls goes, "Look! I'm dusting
Jesus!" 😊),
and a dead bird that the Elders found frozen in the snow
and put on top of our car.. naturally, b/c what else would you do w/ a
pheasant that's been frozen solid? 😷