Mas Milagros!!!

Dang this area is crazy busy! We got it to the point where everyone
was set up for baptism, but then things just started falling apart,
and as I said last week, our Faith was just riding a line. But through
lots of work and of course, Miracles on the Lord's always delivering
part, we were able to salvage one of the lost baptismal dates and
baptize Perla Janeth Rocha Rodriguez de Lopez yesterday. It was an
awesome baptismal service that President Durrant and his wife came to and we were also able to get a lot of branch support there. From what I heard, the last baptism in the branch with a miracle family had only about 15 people in the crowd, but yesterday we got to fill the whole room, and then needed to get more chairs during the service! 

 

But I did find out that the bummer was that as missionaries, we aren't allowed to see the CES Firesides...which is a super bust because Elder Bednar spoke at UTA yesterday which is only a matter of minutes away from us...but apparently the purpose is to prepare the young adults to get married, have families, and live in this crazy world, which is a little different than our purpose as missionaries haha. There was also another family that we are working with that we got to take on a Temple tour and I just wanted to thank you so much Mom for setting up the tour with President Martz around the L.A. Temple for that one Youth Conference. I remembered all sorts of bits of knowledge and symbolism about the temple from that trip that I was able to use and share with our investigators as we walked around the sacred grounds of the Dallas Temple. So many people think that as missionaries we are just chomping at the bit to get people baptized that we'll just throw anyone in! But it is all about the Temple and I am super grateful to Bishop Eddy, President Lindberg, and to everyone else who made it possible for me to work at the temple before my mission! It made me super gung-ho on the Temple and I always make sure that my investigators know that "The House of The Lord" and becoming a "Forever Family" is the ultimate goal! I remember super well after that Temple tour, where we found out that even the flowers, grass, and type of stone used is all symbolic, when President Lindberg personally asked me, "So do you know what the symbolism is behind the title, 'Holiness To The Lord, The House Of The Lord'?" After thinking for a minute, I remember coming up with something, whatever came to my mind at the time, and then he simply said, "There's no symbolism" (because the temple IS the House of the Lord- not just a symbol for it)So I hope that yall are taking super advantage of the Temple and the blessings it brings! Love yall!

Elder Justin Wilson