Dear Family and Friends!!
This week was absolutely amazing! We had a marriage from a family that
we have been teaching since I've been here in Fort Laud South and they
got baptized yesterday! Another amazing marriage and baptism combo! We also baptized another lady that was super prepared and I love her soo much!
One of my favorite stories by President Monson in this past Conference was, "In
one particular meeting, N. Eldon Tanner, who was then an Assistant to
the Quorum of the Twelve, had just returned from his initial experience
of presiding over the missions in Great Britain and western Europe. He
told of a missionary who had been the most successful missionary whom he
had met in all of the interviews he had conducted. He said that as he
interviewed that missionary, he said to him, ‘I suppose that all of the
people whom you baptized came into the Church by way of referrals.’ The
young man answered, ‘No, we found them all by tracting.’ Brother Tanner
asked him what was different about his approach—why he had such
phenomenal success when others didn’t. The young man said that he
attempted to baptize every person whom he met. He said that if he
knocked on the door and saw a man smoking a cigar and dressed in old
clothes and seemingly uninterested in anything—particularly religion—the
missionary would picture in his own mind what that man would look like
under a different set of circumstances. In his mind he would look at him
as clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt and white trousers. And the
missionary could see himself leading that man into the waters of
baptism. He said, ‘When I look at someone that way, I have the capacity
to bear my testimony to him in a way that can touch his heart.’… We have
the responsibility to see individuals not as they are but rather as
they can become. I would plead with you to think of them in this way." I've
been trying to do that in the work Elder Hall and I are doing and it
has been amazing! I love seeing how your faith in the Savior and in them
rubs off and they can feel of the love that you have for them. Jesus
Christ loves all of us and as representitives of Him we must do the
same!
We saw some huge miracles here in Fort Lauderdale South this week! On Wednesday
morning we had two blessings so that day we set out to be exactly
obedient by getting eight by the end of the day. We went out to harvest
and blessed five homes before we had to go to meetings with Bishop that
night. We got done with the meetings at 8:30 and had a lady to go and
visit but we knew being exactly obedient would bring forth the most
blessings. So we set out to knock in the dark and at 8:55 we knocked one
last door and Leroy answered the door. At first Leroy kept putting it
off and saying no but I felt the Lord testify so strongly threw us and
he accepted a blessing. We got to eight on the very last door of the
night! Then the blessings that came the next day due to exact obedience
was amazing. In the morning we got a call randomly from one of our dates
that has been super busy saying the Spirit told her that we need to
come over today. We were able to go over and solidify her date for Sunday.
We got a call from a former investigator to come back over. Then we
also got a call from an amazing family that got offended the first time
they came to church. They stated that they would love for us to come
back over. We did and they even came to church and loved it! All these
blessings came due to exact obedience by getting eight blessings on Wednesday. I turned to Elder Hall Thursday night and said, "We must always be obedient by getting eight blessings by Wednesday!"
I
am very excited for transfers this upcoming week and cannot wait to see
what the Lord has in store! This week we have some baptisms for the
Zone baptism at Stake Conference this Sunday so we are excited for another amazing week!
Another
amazing week here in South Florida! I love ya'll soo much and love our
Savior Jesus Christ as well! I really need some short sleeve white
shirts so yea. But other than that, that's all! Love ya and BAPTIZE THE
WORLD!!
With Love,
Elder Pond
