Family and Friends,
Florence Alabama is the Promised Land. This week has been crazy and I know I’ll probably have more intense weeks to come but I wasn’t expecting any of this in week three. I have really come to learn that God directs our paths. He is always guiding all of His children but especially His missionaries.
On Tuesday last week me and my companion had an appointment with a guy named Ray. We meet Ray while riding by one day the previous week and he stopped us and asked if we would come up on his porch and say a prayer with him. We did and then scheduled a time to come and talk more with him about the gospel. So we went to that appointment, not really thinking it was going to go anywhere but we weren’t going to back out on our end so we went and knocked on his door. He yelled from inside the house to come in and we did so with suspicion. He was sitting on his couch with an empty bottle of Vodka on the side table and he was heavily intoxicated. Nevertheless we pressed forward in our attempts to teach him about commandments and how God goes about to bless us. As you would expect we were getting no where and Ray was getting very upset and kicked us out of his house. Both my companion and I were irritated but I took the opportunity to get out of there and we left. As we were coming down the porch there was a guy (Justin) in the driveway who asked us some questions about the bible and such. He had been studying and trying to learn and wanted some clarification or another voice of whatever. (Side note: he thought we were Jehovah Witnesses, which is more common than we’d like sometimes). The conversation got really doctrinal and really cool and we ended up giving him a copy of the Book of Mormon and inviting him to read. We also invited him to be baptized if he found out that the things we had been telling him were true. He was so open and so ready to talk to us it was amazing. We scheduled to go by again later that week which ended up falling through but we still were amazed that by us going to see Ray-someone we would never expect to accept the gospel-we meet Justin who hopefully we will get in contact to this coming week. So that kicked off our week relatively awesome.
I was also able to be the voice of another blessing that we gave a lady (Amanda) this past week. She is the niece of an older lady in our ward who invited us for dinner one night to her retirement community (which was kinda weird but we still got to meet Amanda out of it). I don’t know if Amanda is a recent convert, a less-active, or just a non-member but giving her a blessing was really cool because I didn’t know her. I barely knew anything about her, she just told me she had some health problems that she had been struggling with. But, I came to know more fully that God knew her. And through me He gave her a profound and, to use her words, “eloquent” blessing. She thanked me and told me that I spoke very well but I reassured her that it wasn’t me speaking. The Spirit was so strong and I’m grateful I was able to have that experience for myself and or Amanda.
Last week we also had a BAPTISM. Out of the blue CJ and Erica-I believe I’ve discussed them before-were meeting with Bishop and talking about tithing or something random and long story short CJ told the Bishop that he’s grown to like the church and he wanted to be baptized. So the last few days in the week we were rushing to get CJ prepared and get his interview done and plan the Baptism. It was a mad dash to get it all done this weekend because he leaves out of town for a month on work this week. Life got stressful for a while and we weren’t sure the baptism was even going to happen until the afternoon on Saturday because the interview wasn’t until that morning. However, when all is said and done we were able to baptize CJ on Saturday evening and I am so excited for him and his family. I can’t wait to hopefully be in the Birmingham Temple with them in a year from now!
God is always blessing us, we just have to slow down to see it sometimes. For obvious reasons my mind has been on baptism and the covenants we make with our Heavenly Father this past week. I’m so grateful for the covenants I’ve made and for the blessings that I receive from my Father each day. I’m thankful for the Sacrament and for the ability we have to renew our own Baptism each week and recommit ourselves to live like and come closer to Jesus Christ. I love and miss you all! Hope God is treating you as well as He is me! If you have any questions or need anything from me just let me know!
Florence is the Promised Land.
Godspeed,
Elder Milius
My District
Baptism of CJ
(Elder Milius, Elder Wheatley, Bishop Infanger, CJ, Elder Lovest)
BAPTISM OF CJ
13 August 2016
“…You who
stand for truth and righteousness, you who seek goodness, you who have entered
into the waters of baptism and walk in the ways of the Lord – our Father in
Heaven has promised that you will ‘mount up with wings as eagles; you shall
run, and not be weary; and you shall walk, and not faint.’ You ‘shall not be
deceived.’ God will bless and prosper you. ‘The gates of hell shall not prevail
against you;… and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before
you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory.”
-President Dieter F Uchtdorf
The
Baptism of CJ
Presiding: Bishop Infanger
Conducting: Brother Taylor
Pianist: Sister Infanger
Chorister: Sister Egee
Opening Hymn: #223 Have I Done Any Good?
Opening Prayer: By Invitation
Talk on Baptism: Elder Lovest
Baptism of CJ
Performed by: Bishop Infanger
Witnesses: Elder Brown & Elder Wheatley
Intermission
Special Musical Number: Sister Johnson
Talk on Holy Ghost: Elder Milius
Welcome to the Ward: Bishop Infanger
Closing Hymn: #116 Come, Follow Me
Closing Prayer: By Invitation
“Ask, and it shall
be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
-Matthew 7:7-8
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