Hope everything is going good! We had a pretty awesome week! I feel like I say every week is awesome... but seriously. They always are!
So on Monday night we went to the monthly family home evening at President Sander's house. Rodi (Sean's Dad) walked up to us and said, "well it looks like we will be having another baptism in the family." We were like "What?!?!" But he wouldn't tell us! So of course we were wracking our brains trying to think of who it could be.
Back story; last Sunday Sean got the Priesthood. He invited his sister (who is less active) and her boyfriend to come see. His sister was baptized a little over a year ago and she just stopped coming. Everyone was telling Sean that it would take a miracle to get her back to church. So he went over and just talked with them about why she needs to come back. And they came! So while Sean was being ordained to the priesthood, Jeff (Shally's boyfriend) just felt to spirit really strong and decided he wanted to have that in his life. So he told Sean he wanted to learn and Shally decided that she needed to come back to church.
Back to the present: so Tuesday, Sean asked us if we could go visit Jeff and Shally with him. Obviously we said yes, and they ended up not being there. But we got a hold of them and set up an appointment for Wednesday. When we got there, they were both super welcoming and excited. We talked with them for a while about why Jeff wanted to learn more and what our role is as missionaries and about what their expectations are from us, etc. It was really great! Shally was getting really excited to start up again and Jeff could just feel the spirit really strong. We ended up introducing the book of Mormon and inviting them to start reading it. We also invited him to be baptized and he said yes! We invited him to be baptized on august 9th and he hesitated for a moment. We asked him what his concern was and he said "well... i was just hoping i could get baptized on my birthday". Haha we were shocked that that was his only concern. So we moved the date to August 16th and he was happy with that day. We went back on Friday and they had already read 10 chapters! Yowza! They are really getting into it! We taught them about the Restoration of the gospel and it was incredible. The spirit was so strong. Jeff was really involved and would stop and ask a question whenever he didn't understand something. Shally kept saying "oh yeah i remember that!" " oh yeah that's right!" She loved it. When we shared the first vision, Jeff started getting a little emotional. We asked him what he was feeling and he said " i feel at peace. I just feel... like I'm coming home". Baaaah! I about started crying! It was so awesome! He has just has such sincere desires to make changes from the very beginning.
So later that night, we were driving home and we got a call from Sean. He told us that Jeff and Shally had just gotten engaged!! Apparently Sean and Rodi had been telling Jeff about how he can't get baptized until they are married since they are living together and he just asked Shally right there and then. Nothing too romantic, but hey! They are so excited! Shally has been running around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to get things together. The wedding is on august 9th, so it is coming up soon! Everything is going so great with them. Miracles just seem to be falling out of the sky lately!
So Sunday was also an incredible day! Sean actually passed the sacrament for the first time and I was so excited! I actually started tearing up a little (my mission has made me such a softy haha). It has just been so, incredible, unbelievable, exciting, to be able to watch him change and become the person he wants to be. Johnny W also came to church which was really exciting! We hadn't been able to go visit them this week because they were really busy so we were glad to see that he had made it on his own. We also had a less active named Jordan come. President Arbizo had been in contact with him lately because some things that had been going on just really made Jordan realize he needed to go back to church. So Sunday was his first time there since he was 16 years old. He is about 22 now. He was incredible pumped to be there, and better yet, Sean was pumped for him! We had Sean, Jordan, and Johnny in gospel principles with us and they were all just working off the excitement of each other. We were teaching about who Heavenly Father is and we started off by asking them how they know Heavenly Father loves them. Johnny said "The book of Mormon". My jaw about dropped open! I was just so shocked/awestruck by his answer! He went on the explain how it proves to him that God loves him and we just couldn't stop smiling. So the lesson pretty much just went incredibly from there. Jordan and Sean shared their conversion stories, they bore their testimonies and in the end, Sean said a prayer and prayed that those who are learning will be able to know that it is true and that they will do what they need to to become a part of it, so he basically was praying for Johnny. It was awesome. I couldn't stop smiling for pretty much the rest of the day.
So that was just a few of the miracles we saw this week! Glad I get to share them with you!
I am so glad to be here and to be a part of this incredible work! I know that if we do all Heavenly Father has asked us to, we will be blessed more than we can imagine. Thank you for all your love and support! You are always all in my prayers! Keep on keeping on!
Love,
Hermana Lundquist